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CITY MISSIONS 



BY 



RET. W M . A. McVICKAR, M. A. 



SE C O NI EDITION 



1868. 




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PUBLISHED BY POTT & AMEKY, 
5 and 13 Cooper Union. 



1868. 






" Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these my brethren, ye have done it unto sie." 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred 

and sixty- eight, 

By WILLIAM A. McVICKAR, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New-York. 



CONTENTS. 



-*■ 0-*-- 



PART I. 

Report ok the Subject of City Missions. 

Page 

The province of a City Mission, - - - - - 10 

Ruumeration of Classes, -- 11 

Class 1st. — The low and vicious poor, 12 

Lodging Houses, 13 

Short and varied Services, - 15 

Banded labor, -- - - 15 

City Mission Societv, 18 

Class 2d. — The floating population of the City, - - - 19 

Class 3d. — Inmates of Public Institutions, 21 

Class 4th. — Fallen Women of the Town, - - - - 22 
Women as workers in a City Mission, - •" - - -24 

CJnited Plan of work, 26 

PART II. 
Supplement. 



The poor have not the Gospel preached to them, 35 

The numbers of the poor in New- York City, - - - 36 

The Tenement Houses of New- York and Brooklyn, - - 89 

" The Workingman's Home," 40 

" St. Stephen's House," Boston, - - - - - - 42 

Free Churches, - - 45 

Open Church for the private devotion of the poor, 47 

Demand for religious Nurses in Hospitals, ... 49 

Charity organizations need the Church's authority, - - 50 

Sisters of Charity in Paris, 56 

Protestant Deaconesses of Paris, ------ 59 

Deaconess Institution at Kaiserworth, - 62 

Petites Soeurs des Pauvres, ------- 64 

House of Mercy, Clewer, - 73 

St. Mary's Home, Wantage, ------- 81 

The difference between " Magdalen Asylums " and " Homes 

of Penitents," 85 

St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth, Code of Statutes, - 87 

The Cathedral System, 91 

Individual Missions, 94 

Conclusion, 95 



GENERAL LETTER OF COMMENDATION FOR THE 
REV. WILLIAM A. McVlCKAR, M. A., 

OE THE DIOCESE OE NEW-TORE, IT. S. 



The bearer, the Rev. William A. McVickar, a Priest of this Dio- 
cese, being about to sail for Europe in quest of health, and being 
desirous to avail himself of the opportunity for inquiring into the 
manner of conducting missionary efforts of the Church in large towns 
in England, has requested me to give him such commendation as 
may seem proper. This I most gladly do ; and it will be a very 
great satisfaction to me, if his researches shall help to throw any 
light upon the best ways and means of Christianizing the neglected 
poor, and depraved, and ignorant of our great cities. 

I beg to commend him to the kind attention of all Clergy and 
Laity of the Church whom he may have occasion to consult. 

Houatio Potter, 

Provisional Bishop elect of the Diocese 
N aw- York, Oct. 2, 1854. of New-York. 



The following Report is the result of the above letter of Com- 
mendation, and which having been submitted to the Provisional 
Bishop, is by him allowed to be published ; it is therefore now offered 
with humble earnestness to the Church-men and Church- women of 
New- York. A supplement has been added, with the view of lessen- 
ing its personal character as a Report, and thereby increasing its 
general interest. 

Iryington, N. Y., Feast of the Epiphany, 1857. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



Eleven years of active ministerial work have not changed 
the writer's yiews with respect to the necessity of organized mission 
work, extra-parochial, in all large cities. I have, therefore, yielded 
to the request of a few friends to put out a new edition of a Report 
upon the subject of City Missions, made in 1856 to the then Pro- 
visional Bishop of the Diocese of New-York. This is done from no 
over- estimate of its importance, but simply because, in the absence 
of any like publication, it seems well adapted to foster that Mission- 
ary spirit, which, through the grace of God, is everywhere among 
us, struggling for birth and asking for guidance. Eleven years, 
especially such years as have of late aged our city and its inhabit- 
ants, is a severe test to any statement of theoretic plans. If, there- 
fore, this Report can stand that test, and point to more than one 
successful working out of its principles, it is not presumptuous to 
ask for it a careful reconsideration by that body so deeply interested 
in the subject, the Church of New- York City— its Bishop, Clergy and 
Laity. 

At the time when this Report was rendered, St. Luke's Hospital, 
the House of Mercy, just founded, and the Seamen's Mission, were 
the only extra-parochial Mission organizations connected with our 
Church within the city. It was boldly affirmed and maintained, 
that the City Parishes were quite sufficient to meet and supply all 
the wants of City Missions. This principle, true in small towns, 
and not at all unnatural in larger ones, had had sufficient power to 
terminate the active existence of the original City Mission Society, 
and was still widely maintained. Year by year, however, it became 
less and less tenable. The city grew in ignorance, wretchedness, 
vice and heathenism as rapidly as it grew in wealth and power, and 
much more rapidly than it grew in Christian liberality and self-de- 
nial. Wealth and Churches both moved up town, and large dis- 



PREFACE. 

tricts, crowded With a population in need of Mission care, were left 
entirely uncared for. Facts worked their way successfully against 
false theoretic principles. And St. Luke's Home, St. Barnabas' House, 
The Sheltering Arms, the Hospital for Incurables, the Midnight 
Mission, and, above all, the Kevivified City Mission Society, forced 
their way into existence, found plenty of work, and no lack of sym- 
pathy. It was at last conceded, that in certain portions of the city 
at least, in the public institutions, and for certain classes, organized, 
extra-parochial Missionary work w T as essential. 

The City Mission Society, the parent and director of St. Barnabas' 
House, of the Midnight Mission, and of other Mission agencies, finds 
its work steadily increasing exactly in proportion to the amount 
done. Its works are now r so numerous, so wide-spread, and so im- 
portant, that the Church in New-York City cannot afford to risk for 
a moment their healthy continuance. And yet this Society, in its 
present as in its former life, carries with it elements of weakness, 
which, to the great detriment and scandal of the Church, may, at 
any moment, bring it and its labors to a sudden termination. Its 
very strength is its weakness. It possesses a charter which enables 
it, under favorable circumstances, to become a great moneyed power. 
In its former history it pursued the policy of founding and fostering 
Mission Churches, the titles to which were held by the Society, 
which policy was to be perpetuated by the purchase of sites through- 
out the whole island. There could be no question as to the wisdom 
of this course. But, unfortunately, the City Mission Society was but 
a Society. It was not the Church acting through a Committee, nor 
was it the Church acting through its Bishop ; it was an independent 
Society, whose future prospects awakened parochial jealousy. The 
Church had neither the desire nor the right to allow her Mission 
work to pass from her control ; and the first City Mission Society, in 
spite of the seeming wisdom of her plans, had to bring her labors to 
a close. 

For near twenty years it had a mere passive existence, being kept 
alive simply to save its valuable charter. In 1864 it was resusci- 
tated into more active life, and for the last few years has made itself 
felt in a still greater activity and a more enlarged Mission work, 
until it has come to be what we find it to-day^-a Society composed 
of eight Clergymen and thirteen Laymen, employing seven ordained 
Missionaries, besides a large corps of devoted women and men, own- 



V 



PREFACE. 7 

ing and having the control of several Mission Houses, and expend- 
ing annually near $24,000. This work, of a nature as distinct from 
country Missions, as is river navigation from a battling with the 
stormy breakers on a lee-shore, opening up at every new step flood- 
gates *of misery and rottenness that require the immediate erection 
of safety bulwarks ; receiving a'compound interest for the money 
spent in a tenfold demand for more ; causing all engaged in it to 
draw together for sympathy and aid, like the " forlorn hope" in 
some desperate charge — this work, which, if not pursued with en- 
ergy, must be abandoned altogether, demands, the moment it begins 
to assume its rightful proportions, a personal, responsible head. This, 
the natural and necessary result of the policy of the present City Mis- 
sion Society, as the founder and fosterer of a general Mission, has just 
been reached. They have felt the necessity of a personal head. 
And probably without much thought beyond their own present 
needs, they proceeded to elect the one whom they considered best 
fitted for the work. But here, just on the eve of strength, they 
found their weakness. As the former City Mission Society fell be- 
fore parochial jealousy, so must this one fall before Episcopal 
jealousy. The Bishop vetoes the election. 

Doubtless this will be called by some Episcopal tyranny. But it 
is not so. Where the directors of this Society saw only work, and 
the necessities of work, the Bishop, looking, as he is bound to do, 
through the eyes of his successors, sees power and the dangers of 
power. This Society, with an independent head not appointed by 
the Bishop, not reporting to him or taking from him delegated au- 
thority, and possessing a charter which sets no limits to its wealth 
or work, may assume proportions which would overshadow the 
whole Diocese. This would not be right. It would not be wise in 
the Bishop to foster its beginnings. A great City Mission is the 
work of the Church. No Society will long be allowed to direct and 
regulate it. The machinery of a Society may be needful in connec- 
tion with it, but the Church itself must form the foundation. Either 
the Society must be but the Standing Committee of the city Clergy, 
or else, more in accordance with the feeling of every true Church- 
man, the Bishop himself must be the personal, responsible head, 
and the acting head must be one of his own appointment. 

This brings us face to face with the plan suggested eleven years 
ago in the accompanying Report — a Bishop's Church as the visible 



8 PREFACE, 

centre of a great City Mission, and the City Mission Society acting 
as the Bishop's hands in connection with it. 

And is not the present time providential ? Work enough for two 
chief Pastors is just being taken off the Bishop's hands. But not 
because of impaired health or acknowledged inability, but because 
the country parts of this great Diocese have long felt that the city 
needed its Bishop and they theirs. 

The irresistible operation within the Church, of this law, that 
where there is work for a Bishop, there there should be one, may 
yet show us the Diocese of New- York coincident with the City of 
New-York. In which case its Bishop must needs seem but a sad 
and lonely man, thus restricted to the formal round of official duty 
within city limits, unless, standing upon his rights as chief Pastor, 
he has already obtained from his people a Church where he may 
preach the Gospel to the poor, and make for himself a home in the 
hearts of the afflicted. To do this now by action of Convention, 
would be far easier than when the question must be settled by the 
votes of independent city Rectors alone. For every part of this 
State is interested, and deeply so, in the Mission work of New-York 
City. Its moral condition nearly concerns them, and it would be 
sad news to our country brethren to hear that all plans of a general 
City Mission had failed. 

The Bishop is President ex-officio of the City Mission Society, and 
though he has never acted as its responsible head, there can be no 
question of his right so to act, nor of the natural expectation that he 
now intends to do so. If his rights and duties in the Society are not 
made as distinct as they were to Bishop Wainwright, it can only be 
because he has heretofore shown no inclination to take an active 
part in its affairs. 

I cannot close these prefatory remarks without adding my testi- 
mony, as a looker-on, to the fidelity, earnestness and success with 
which the City Mission Society has prosecuted its arduous work ; and 
if doubts have been expressed with respect to its future, it is only to 
its future as a restricted Society, practically dissevered from the 
Bishop and the Church. 

New-York, Feast of the Epiphany, 1868. 



EEPOET 



ON THE SUBJECT OF 



CITY MISSIONS 



It is not without strong feelings of diffidence, Right 
Rev. Sir, that I proceed, in compliance with your request, 
to make my Report upon the subject of City Missions. 
The " general letter of commendation," with which you 
were kind enough to supply me before leaving the coun- 
try, and in which you requested for me the kind attention 
of all whom I might have occasion to consult upon 
the general subject of "the best ways and means of 
Christianizing the neglected poor, depraved, and ignorant 
of our great cities" has been freely used. Its value to 
me,. it would be difficult to estimate. It was everywhere 
considered a sufficient passport for the kindest attention . 
and hospitality. 

Among many cases, one will suffice as showing its 
value. It was at a clerical meeting of some fifteen clergy 
of the Church of England in a continental city, several 
of them men whose names are* widely known, that the 
presentation of your letter not only obtained for me a 
seat, but also a change in the subject of debate, that I 
might have the advantage of their individual experience 
and united discussion of that subject in which your letter 
showed that I was particularly interested. 

2 



10 CITY MISSION'S. 

My endeavor shall now be to embody in a brief Re- 
port the general results of my examination of this subject 
in its bearing upon our own city, adding in a supplement 
some of the facts upon which such results are based. 

Although the personal question of fitness is sufficiently 
answered, either to myself or others, by your request, 
there must still be a feeling of great responsibility resting 
upon all those who, in times like the present, venture to 
speak publicly upon any of the exciting Church topics of 
the day. Their influence for good or for evil, it is im- 
possible beforehand to compute ; for at such times the 
subject often invests the feeblest words with a power far 
beyond their due, thus giving us a striking example of 
what maybe the effect of an " idle word.' 5 Now it is 
indeed true that " City Missions" is not what most persons 
would call an exciting topic, and yet perhaps there is no 
subject which for the present has taken such hold upon " 
the minds of earnest churchmen, and which for the future 
has in it such a store either of good or evil. Our char- 
acter, our very existence as a Church, seems wrapt up 
in it ; and the course of action adopted during the few 
coming years, must set its seal upon us as a Church that 
either cares for or neglects the poor. 

The Province of a City Mission. — The province of a 
great City Mission, a first and necessary question, would 
seem to be this : The spiritual, and, as far as may be, 
temporal care of all those classes, who, whether created 
or only increased by the natural working of large cities, 
are not sufficiently reached by the Church's parochial 
system. If this be true, the scope of any Report on this 
subject would naturally be as follows : 

1. The enumeration of those classes. 



CITY MISSIONS. 11 

2. The examination of each with reference to the best 
mode of bringing to bear spiritual influences ; and, 

3. The endeavor to unite these varied branches of a 
City Mission under some harmonious, consistent and 
practical plan. 

Enumeration of Classes. — 1. Without wishing in any 
way to magnify what may be called extra-parochial work, 
one finds that there are in our city at least four distinct 
classes, which are either not at all, or inadequately reached 
under our present parochial system, and which therefore 
form the natural province of a City Mission. They are 
as follows : 

I. The lowest class, who, from poverty or vice, cannot 
be induced to attend the Parish Church. 

II. The floating population of the city, such as sailors, 
boatmen, etc. 

III. The inmates of public institutions, whether of 
charity or correction. 

IV. The fallen women of the town. 

But the question may be asked, inasmuch' as all these 
classes are in some way or other embraced within paro- 
chial limits, cannot their wants be met by an increased 
efficiency in parochial working ? This question is not 
only an important one, but one which must be settled 
before any further step can be taken, as upon it depends 
the whole subject of the necessity of City Missions at 
all. And it will be well here to remember that the 
" City Mission Society," while in full and efficient work- 
ing, was forced to bring its labors to a close, chiefly 
because of trouble arising from this unsettled question. 

Theoretically, there need be no hesitation in answering 



12 CITY MISSIONS. 

that the parochial system, fully and adaptedly carried 
out, is able to cope with every "want found within the 
parish limits ; and in the country, extra work must be 
clone in this way, or not at all. But in city parishes, 
where " extra work" has within late years grown so fear- 
fully as at least to overshadow if not counterbalance 
that work which centres round the Parish Church, it be- 
comes too grave a question to leave its performance or 
non-performance to the will and caprice of a few wealthy 
parishioners. And this view of the subject is strength- 
ened when we come to look at the general tone of our 
parishes, which all must confess to be rather congrega- 
tional than parochial. And will not every clergyman 
who has attempted fully to carry out missionary work 
within his parish, add his testimony to the fact, that the 
work was beyond his power, and that the little he was 
able to perform was rather in spite of, than through the 
aid of his church-going parishioners ? There may indeed 
be noble exceptions, but surely this is the general rule 
even among the small proportion of parishes which 
attempt the work at all. ISToav such being the case, 
would it not be a shame that petty questions of parochial 
rights should interfere with the great work of a City 
Mission ? And yet, Sir, as you doubtless well know, it 
was these very questions which brought to a sudden 
termination the labors of that noble, though perhaps 
inadequate society above mentioned. Should this work 
therefore be again started, the settlement of this question, 
in some way or other, would seem to be essential as a 
preliminary step. 

Class 1st. The low and melons Poor. — I. The first 
of these classes which we have ventured to call extra- 



CITY MISSIONS. 1 



o 



parochial, consists of those who, from vice or poverty, 
cannot he induced to attend the Parish Church ; the 
bulk, in fact, of the low population of the city ; the lar- 
gest, and consequently the most important part of any 
City Mission. The question is, how are they to be coped 
with, and how are spiritual influences to be brought to 
bear ujDon them. 

The concurrent testimony of nearly all who have 
labored among this class, seems to point to the great 
importance of these two principles : First, the necessity 
of temporal appliances for the purpose of raising their 
social condition ; and secondly, the absolute necessity of 
banded and systematized labor for their spiritual in- 
struction. 

Lodging-Houses. — The most important, under the first 
of these, would be the erection and careful employment 
of proper lodging-houses. All who in ministerial capacity 
have visited the lowest class of our city poor, know full 
well that this is no unimportant matter. In fact, its im- 
portance can hardly be exaggerated. What an increase 
of influence would be given to the minister's words, if 
his exhortation to honesty, sobriety, and cleanliness could 
be backed, in the event of improvement, by the promise 
of three clean, well-ventilated, and comfortable rooms, 
at the same rent which is now paid for one or two sti- 
fling apartments ! Nor would this in any way necessitate 
a sinking-capital. It is a w^ell-known fact that those 
large houses which are now rented out by individuals, 
room by room, to the lower class of the poor, bring in a 
heavier interest upon their, principal than almost any 
other city property. There, therefore, would be no diffi- 
culty in a society whose object was not to make money, 



14 CITY MISSIONS. 

renting out superior rooms at a much lower rate than is 
now paid for far inferior ones. Nor would this induce- 
ment for improvement and good behavior be the only 
benefit obtained by such a plan ; it will at once be evi- 
dent how each one of these lodging-houses might become 
a centre of both social and religious influences. A 
chapel and reading-room might well be considered as 
necessary appendages to every lodging-house capable of 
accommodating fifty families. Those who have en- 
deavored to inroart religious instruction in the apart- 

J. O -L 

ments of the poor, half deafened by crying children and 
the confused noise of household employments, must at 
once feel how great would be the relief as well as the 
advantage of having some proper and convenient room, 
wherein they could meet the inmates of the house, either 
individually or in classes. The very terms Chapel and 
Reading-Room at once suggest innumerable ways in 
which a lod^ino--house of this character inio;ht be made 
the means of the social improvement of its inmates. Nor 
is it necessary for the present to go further or more 
minutely into this question of temporal appliances for 
improving the social condition of the class under con. 
sideration. They must all centre round the improved 
lodging-house, the establishment of which, on proper 
principles, is at first the only necessary step. The lodg. 
ing-house with its Chapel would then become the nursery 
of the Parish Church. Better rooms at lower rent would 
be found as strong an inducement for reformation and 
amendment, as could possibly be held out : the fear of 
losing them ao-ain, would be the strongest safeguard 
against relapse ; white at the same time the strict, though 
gentle discipline of the house, and short services of the 
Chapel, would be gradually preparing the inmates for 



CITY MISSIONS. 15 

the higher privileges and fuller worship of the Parish 
Church. If what we have called the Parish Church — 
that is, the nearest place of worship — should be already 
filled, there would, of course, be the necessity for the for- 
mation of a new congregation and the erection of a new 
Church. 

Short and varied Services, — And should there not be 
allowed to the chaplains of such houses greater liberty, 
w^ith respect to their Chapel services, than is accorded 
to the regular parish priest ? If, as is suggested, these 
Chapels are to become nurseries to the Church of that 
parish within which they are situated, the reason of such 
liberty must at once be evident, on the very same prin- 
ciple that allows us to have a peculiar service for our 
Sunday-school children. The Sunday worshippers in 
such Chapels would, in fact, as a general rule, be con- 
sidered as forming two classes — those preparing for 
Baptism, and those preparing for Confirmation ; and as 
individuals in the latter class became prepared, they 
would be sent to the Parish Church for the higher 
privileges of Confirmation and Communion, thus having 
their names enrolled among the regular communicants 
of the parish. The week-day services would be more in 
the light of family prayers intended for all. 

We now come to the very important question, How 
and by whom is the religious instruction of this class to 
be undertaken ? 

Banded Labor. — First, how? that is, according to 
what principle — individual effort, or banded labor? 
Certainly, if we can but free ourselves from prejudice, 
common sense and the worldly wisdom resulting from 



16 CITY MISSIONS. 

experience will not allow us to hesitate in our answer to 
this question. Banded and systematized labor is what is 
wanted ; the only question is, can it be obtained? And 
to that the reply without hesitation might be made, that 
want of means is at present the chief drawback. It may 
seem strange to some that want of means should be con- 
sidered, the chief difficulty in obtaining that earnest and 
devoted labor, which all acknowledge money cannot 
buy. But yet in a great measure it is so ; the majority 
of those who study for the ministry are poor, and though 
unmarried, still generally find such strong claims upon 
them for the support and assistance of near relations, that 
they are unable to take those positions which will barely 
afford a support for themselves. 

To obtain banded labor, therefore, in this work, we 
need to be able to offer to each individual an independ- 
ence — that is, more than he actually requires for his own 
support. In doing this, the establishment, and if pos- 
sible the endowment, of a few Mission-houses would be 
found to be of the greatest assistance. Such a plan, with 
all the members of the Mission living together, would be 
most desirable on the score of economy ; but it at once 
opens the important and somewhat difficult question of 
whether or no the members of such Mission should be 
married men. Unfortunately, the forced celibacy of the 
Church of Rome, and the bad effects flowing from it. 
have created so natural and strong a prejudice against 
the entire principle of devoting ourselves untrammelled 
by domestic cares to the work of the Gospel, that all advo- 
cacy of this otherwise laudable principle is liable to mis- 
conception. All we want, however, is for a short time to let 
common sense take the place of prejudice, and then bring 
to bear on this question the common rules of judgment. 



CITY MISSIONS. 17 

Would a Mission composed of single men be the most 
economical ? We know that undoubtedly it would. 
Would it be likely to be more efficient than one composed 
of men each having a wife and family ? Here, again, 
both common sense and experience compel us to say, yes. 
To go no further than we have, economy and efficiency 
opposed to expensiveness and comparative inefficiency, 
and the choice between the two to be made, ought not the 
objections against the former principle to be very strong 
to compel us to choose the latter ? 

Of course the matter "would be left entirely voluntary, 
as is the case in the English universities ; the only regu- 
lation being this, that so long as a person is connected 
with the Mission he remains unmarried. The strict 
regulations in the American army, and I believe of all 
armies, with respect to this matter, show that the princi- 
ple must have some strong foundation in reason. 

And yet, notwithstanding all this, it might be worth 
while considering whether the two principles may not be 
united; a married presbyter of years and experience 
being placed at the head of each Mission-house, while 
under him would be from three to six vounger and un- 
married men. As an example, I would mention a parish 
towards the centre of England, the beautiful working of 
which struck me with peculiar interest, — an old town, the 
birthplace of King Alfred, with a population of some 
three thousand souls. The rector, a married man, had 
to assist him in his work three curates, all single men, 
one of whom was the chaplain of a Home for Penitents, 
also a lay schoolmaster. They did not live with the 
rector, but resided two and two, not far away ; each had 
his district, for the care and knowledge of which he was 
accountable. At twelve o'clock each day they all 



18 CITY MISSIONS. 

met in the rector's study, when the events of the morning 
and the duties of the afternoon were talked over ; they 
then united in a short mid-day service, composed chiefly 
of intercessions for the parish, and for God's grace upon 
the different works carried on within it. Then came 
dinner, all, as a regular rule, dining with the rector and 
his family, thus affording a break in the occupations of 
the day by this hour of pleasant social intercourse ; after 
which, all separated again for their respective duties of 
the afternoon. 

To sum up the working staff of this parish, I should 
mention that the rector had been instrumental in estab- 
lishing two sisterhoods, one for the care of the " Home," 
the other to be engaged in teaching. The appearance of 
things within this parish, and the testimony of all who 
were acquainted with its working, was highly satisfactory. 

Individual effort with respect to Mission work has been 
tried, (it was the policy of the City Mission Society,) and 
I fear it must be said, failed; that is, failed with respect 
to the establishment of any permanent Mission. The 
very success of the missionary, under that system, 
became destructive of the missionary character of his 
work. He soon worked himself into being a parish 
priest ; and the congregation, which as missionary he 
had gathered and taught, soon began to feel their impor- 
tance, and request that their church might be no longer a 
free and missionary church. Thus w^as the machinery 
destroyed by the very accomplishment of the work, and 
every thing had to be begun anew by fresh hands ; the 
experience gained by the former missionary being carried 
into a new field of labor, where it was comparatively 
little needed. 

In lieu of this we would urge some system of banded 



CITY MISSIONS. 19 

labor, such as we have suggested — young men, under an 
older head, finding their work, some in the degraded 
homes of the lowest poor, engaged in the preparatory 
work of fitting them to become inmates of a cleanly, 
well-ordered and Christian lodging-house ; the rest as 
chaplains of such lodging-houses, preparing their inmates 
to become intelligent, consistent and pious members of 
the Parish Church. Such a system once established, 
every year would but add to its strength and efficacy, and 
each Mission-house would be gradually gathering about 
it an amount of traditionary experience which would en- 
able it to perform its work better every year. And 
lastly, under such a system there could be no room for 
jealousy between the missionary and the parish priest ; 
the labors of the one would but strengthen the hands of 
the other. 

Class 2d. The Floating Population of the City.- — 
II. The floating population of the city, such as boatmen, 
sailors, &c, have been placed as a class by themselves, 
and as the second division in the extra-parochial work 
of a City Mission. Few words will be required with 
respect to this very important class, inasmuch as they 
have already claimed the sympathy and obtained the in- 
dividual labors of several devoted missionaries. Nothing 
could be better than the plan which has been adopted ; 
all that is wanted is greater strength in men and money. 
Sailor's homes and sailor's churches are the necessary ap- 
pliances of a Mission to this formerly much neglected class. 
There is, however, one part of the floating population 
of this great city which must remain entirely untouched 
by such a Mission — a class whose future influence for 
good or bad must always be immense. I refer to the 



20 CITY MISSIONS. 

large body of young men who come from the country to 
spend a few years in the city, either to study law, or 
medicine, or as clerks, to gain experience in mercantile 
pursuits, — a class removed, as a general rule, from all 
the restraining influences of home, and fully exposed to 
all the worst temptations of a city. Much has of late 
been done for them by the establishment of reading- 
rooms and the formation of young men's associations, 
and appliances of this kind must always be the chief 
means of influencing them for good. At present, I would 
but remark upon the importance of the class, and suggest 
the need of a more systematized way of reaching them. 
Free reading-rooms, in which the gentlemen of the 
neighborhood might give lectures and readings, while 
those who were competent might give lessons in draw- 
ing and music, would necessarily become attractive to 
the class in question ; while individual influence of a moral 
and religious character might be brought to bear by the 
personal intercourse of the librarian, a deacon, perhaps, 
under the new canon. 

An exactly parallel case is likewise presented to us in 
that large class of young women, who come from the 
country to the city to perfect themselves in some trade. 
Ignorant of the dangers and temptations to which they 
must necessarily be exposed, they should certainly claim 
the interest, the care, and the attention of a Missionary 
Church, and especially of its elder female communicants. 
I understand that the infidel and low-toned lecturers, 
which are always to be found in cities, draw a large pro- 
portion of their hearers from this class. Shall we give 
them no better lecturers ? Shall we leave them entirely 
uncared for ? 

And what as a Church are we doing for servants ? 



CITY MISSIONS. 21 

They stand, a distinct class, with njany peculiar tempta- 
tions, and, as society is at present organized, with but 
few spiritual advantages. Too often both the master 
and mistress consider that they have done their duty, 
when they have regularly paid them their wages ; they 
are afraid to attempt instruction in religious matters — 
their servants know them too well. But can nothing be 
done for them ? 

Class 3d. Inmates of Public Institutions. — HI. The 
inmates of public institutions, whether of charity or cor- 
rection, form an immense class in and about our city, 
who, as regards religious influences and privileges, are 
left either to the tender mercies of our government, or to 
the chance-services of charitable and self-denying indi- 
viduals. This class would certainly deserve the system- 
atic care and attention of any properly organized City 
Mission. I am not aware, however, that more is needed 
here than simply to point out the field ; the work must 
be parcelled out, and undertaken by missionaries, who, 
in some way banded together, may have the advantage 
of mutual sympathy and counsel, and be responsible to 
some common head, to whom their monthly reports would 
all be made. 

* The important question of the care of Hospitals, and 
the wide field there opened for the self-denying labors of 
Christian women, would naturally range itself under this 
head. The noble example presented in the Military 
Hospital of Scutari cannot but have its effect on the 
women of this generation. The whole subject, however, 
of the employment and position of women in the work of 
a City Mission is one of so great importance, that it de- 
serves a special consideration ; I therefore leave it till it 



22 CITY MISSIONS. 

1 comes up in its necessary connection with the next and 
last division. 

Class 4th. Fallen Women of the Town. — IY. The 
fourth and, I believe, concluding class which would call 
for a distinct, pointed consideration, as regards mission- 
ary work, would be the " fallen women of the town ;" 
a class who were especially pointed to by our Blessed 
Lord as the proper subjects of a loving pity, and yet who 
seem to be more entirely cut off from the chances of 
amendment, and consequent hope of salvation, than any 
other. There can be no need for me to enlarge upon the 
want ; statistics show that our city enjoys an unenviable 
superiority over both London and Paris in the propor- 
tionate number of these poor unfortunates. . iSfo great 
City Mission, therefore, would in any way deserve its 
name, that neglected to cope with this crying evil, or 
failed to supply those means and appliances for reforma- 
tion and amendment, without which all the preaching in 
the world is but like the calling upon a drowning man to 
come to shore. 

With two or three exceptions, no attempts have been 
made practically to reach this neglected class with any 
hope of a permanent reformation ; but still those excep- 
tions, though few, have been noble ones, — though how 
inadequate to the demand, their promoters themselves 
would be the first to confess. One of these, consisting 
of an establishment called the " House of Mercy, 55 with 
which you, Sir, are well acquainted, and which reflects 
so much credit upon its self-denying foundress and 
directress, might well be taken as a nucleus for some 
more extended plan. 

My visits to institutions of this kind in England, and 



CITY MISSIONS. 23 

my intercourse with their chaplains, especially with the 
Chaplain of St. Mary's Home, Wantage, whose kindness 
as well as that of the Rector I shall not soon forget, led 
to this conclusion ; that single, isolated " Houses of 
Mercy" are not able to contend with the many practical 
and incidental difficulties which must constantly arise ; 
but that this work requires, in the first place, two classes 
of houses; and secondly, a ready and mutual correspond- 
ence among them all. The reason for this, and its im- 
portance, may be easily shown. The work of reforma- 
tion for individuals of this class is a long and a slow 
work, needing a quiet home, constant occupation, and 
the most careful personal influence. Nothing less than 
the eradication of bad habits, both of body and mind, 
and the formation in their stead of good habits, gives 
much hope of a lasting result. Now it is evident that a 
home of this kind can only be found, and work of this 
kind can only be carried on, in the quiet of the country. 
But although this reformation is so slow a work, it still 
generally commences in the mere whim of the moment — 
a whim which, if taken advantage of at the time, may 
lead to the most happy and blessed results ; but which, 
if, when the hand is stretched out for mercy, there be 
none to give it a friendly pressure, sinks again into a cold 
apathy which may never afterwards be broken. Conse- 
quently the need of houses within the city, where the 
poor penitent may knock at any hour of the day or night, 
and be received without question. Of the numbers who 
would enter such houses, doubtless many would again 
be lost ; but there would also be very many who in no 
other way would ever have been saved. And again, these 
City Homes, if funds are allowed the Mission to have 
more than one, which, I doubt not, would soon be the 



24 CITY MISSIONS. 

case, could be subdivided into bouses of mere reception, 
wbose work would be to receive, witbout question of any 
kind, every penitent wbo applied ; and secondly, bouses 
of probation, wbere tbose wbo seemed to bave any earn- 
estness niigbt be kept on trial, until tbey were tbougbt 
fit for one of tbe country bomes. 

The great necessity for these different classes of bouses 
lies in the importance of removing the penitent as much 
as possible from the associations of her former life ; while, 
at the same time, those who have become established are 
to be most carefully guarded from the excitement, and 
perhaps evil example, of those who have but just left the 
paths of sin. • 

Women as Workers in a City Mission. — But a very 
important question remains unanswered. Who is to 
undertake this work, and by whom are these different 
homes to be conducted, and their inmates trained in the 
paths of penitence ? I answer, without hesitation, by 
women ; and those women, in every sense of the term, 
ladies. High-minded, refined, and educated women, if 
only they have within them the love of Christ, will ever 
be found the best workers in this truly Christian calling. 
It belongs to them, and all they want is that their position 
as humble Christian workers should be fixed and sanction- 
ed by the Church. Even the most sensitive and retiring 
would then come forward with boldness ; the shadow of 
the Church's mantle, felt to be no other than that of 
Christ, would be over them; their position, and the 
nobility of their work would be acknowledged ; and their 
characters would then be williiifflv left to the Church's 
care and keeping. 

But this subject on which I have now entered is not 



CITY MISSIONS. 25 

one which may be passed over lightly ; its importance is 
too immense upon the future working of our Church. It 
must be looked at calmly and soberly, its difficulties 
stared in the face, and its advantages carefully weighed. 
This, however, is not the place to enter upon it fully ; 
and yet I may be allowed to lay down a few propositions, 
which can be proved at another time, if needful. 

1. Women are peculiarly fitted by nature to tend 
the sick and comfort the distressed. 

2. The proportion of unmarried women in communities 
of high civilization must always be very great. 

3. Of these unmarried women, a large proportion are 
entirely destitute of necessary social duties. Many have 
no homes at all ; many more, from the want of natural 
duties, uncomfortable and unhappy ones. 

4. The offer of a home involving a high and recognised 
j30sition, and opening paths of unlimited work and 
usefulness, would be hailed by hundreds of such women 
as the exact thing for which they had long been wishing, 
and often pining. 

5. In the varied w r ork of a great City Mission there 
will always be a constant demand for workers well fitted 
to tend the sick and comfort the distressed. 

6. There is no law of God or man which forbids women 
being employed in missionary work. 

7. A great City Mission being started, and its staff of 
missionaries at work, the sudden addition to their ranks 
of a number of refined, intelligent, and devoted women, 
ready to give up their whole time to any part of the 
work, would greatly increase the means of usefulness of 
that Mission in almost every department. 

But there is one fact that seems to prove that women 
must be employed in the work of our Missions, if with 



26 CITY MISSIONS. 

any propriety we w6uld appropriate to ourselves the title 
of a missionary Church ; and that is, that without their 
aid we cannot even pretend to cope with that fearfully 
extended class of which we have last spoken, and which 
must always form so large a division in the work of a 
City Mission. It is not that the work cannot be icell 
done without them, it cannot be done at all/ there remains, 
therefore, no other alternative than .that of boldly enlist- 
ing women in the work, or on the other hand of declaring 
that the fallen women, who nightly crowd our streets, 
have no claim upon the City Missions of our Church. 
Oh, Sir, believe it, that it only requires the raising of 
your voice as their Bishop, to call forth numbers of devo- 
ted women ready to spend and be spent in their Master's 
services, in whatsoever position, under your acknowledged 
direction, you shall see fit to place them. 

Although I have only spoken of women in connection 
with the care of penitents, there can be no doubt that 
their presence is needed in almost every branch of City 
Mission work, especially in hospitals, and in the female 
wards of prisons and penitentiaries. The many practical 
matters of detail connected with the various parts of this 
plan do not require discussion here ; I therefore pass on to 
my last question. 

United Plan of Work. — 3. How are these varied 
branches of a City Mission to be united under one har- 
motiious, consistent, and practical plan? Societies 
are the fashion of the present day, especially with re- 
gard to any thing which has a charitable aspect. It is 
an easy way of shifting a responsibility, which other- 
wise might sit rather heavily upon the conscience. The 
responsibility becomes like a ball among skillful play- 



CITY MISSIONS. 27 

ers, which, cast from one to another, never rests, and 
yet never falls. It is a convenient plan ; and yet it has 
its disadvantages, and among them, perhaps, none 
greater than its entire failure to command the high re- 
spect of earnest and devoted men. A Presbyter, acting 
at the head of his parish as the promoter and director 
of all the charities within his cure, is looked up to with 
respect and love, and soon gathers around him a corps 
of earnest and self-denying workers ever ready to carry 
out his plans. It is the same with the Bishop. One 
who stands boldly out at the head of his diocese as the 

ml 

guiding spirit in all its general works, has a degree of 
respect and devotion accorded to him that never can 
be brought out by any Society, no matter how conducted, 
or of whom composed. I know that I mi^ht be answered 
by a reference to the two great Societies of the Church 
of England, to one of which especially, we, of this 
country, owe so much ; but let it be remembered that 
these Societies were created to do a work, and supply 
a want, the burden of which, in no way, rested either 
upon a single parish, or upon a single diocese. For 
one Presbyter, or for one Bishop, to have undertaken 
it, would have been presumptuous. It was a work be- 
lonoino- to the English Church at larsje, and in her then 
hampered condition it was by the formation of Societies 
alone that it could possibly be performed. These 
then hardly form precedents for a case, such as we have 
been considering: — the Mission work of a single citv, and 
that city the seat of a single Bishop. There is no doubt, 
however, that a Society could embrace all the work 
which a great City Mission requires, and that an organ- 
ization of some kind would be absolutely necessary. 
Moreover, in the old " City Mission Society," which in 



28 CITY MISSIONS. 

law still exists, there is ready to hand an organization 
well fitted for the work, and one which already has a 
charter more liberal by far than any which could now 
be obtained, enabling it to extend its work indefinitely, 
and to hold churches and property to an indefinite 
amount. Such being the case, it certainly would be the 
part of wisdom to make this chartered Society the 
ground-work and centre of operations. Much time and 
labor would thus be saved, and the work might be 
commenced with an amount of quiet confidence which 
can never belong to a new and untried organization. 
And yet, Sir, if this Mission is to call forth that high, 
personal, self-denying, and enthusiastic devotion which 
it so greatly needs, its corporate character must be very 
much merged in the personal. The members of the 
Mission, both men and women, must feel that they have 
a personal, sympathizing head ; not the Director of a 
Society, but the ministerial and personally responsible 
pastor of a great Christian Mission. And from the very 
nature of the case as well as the rules of the Society, 
who, but yourself, Sir, could be that head and pastor ? 
Pardon me, while for a moment I enlarge upon this 
point. The Bishop of New-York can no longer be, as 
many of his brethren, the Rector of a Parish Church. 
This is well ; but if nothing is given to supply its place, 
the position of a Bishop becomes in many respects un- 
pleasant and uncomfortable. With a right to enter any 
church in his diocese, he still feels that he is at home, 
and has rights in none. So strongly did your lamented 
predecessor feel this want, that he expressed himself 
strongly in favor of a return to the former custom. But 
in your case, Sir, without a return to that very anoma- 
lous position of an Episcopal Rector, a plan opens which 



CITY MISSIONS. 29 

will cover every want, and remove every difficulty. 
The diocese will build you a church ; the City Mission 
Society will become your vestry, and your cure will con- 
sist of the thousands and tens of thousands whom your 
parish ministers cannot reach. The poor, the halt, and 
the maimed will be yours ; the wandering sailor and the 
homeless young man will be guarded and taught through 
your means ; the blind, the sick, the orphan, and the 
prisoner will be taught to pray for you ; and that crowd 
of poor unfortunates, more sinned against than sinning, 
shall through your aid send forth to labor in the cause 
of Christ many a devoted and pure-hearted woman. No 
distinction of rich and poor will be known in your 
church ; it will be the church of all — the home alike of 
the poorest and richest in your diocese. The daily song 
of prayer and praise w^ould there constantly ascend for 
all your people. The poor country minister, whose feeble 
parish had given a few dollars towards their Bishop's 
church, could then feel, on entering our great city (so 
chilling to a stranger,) that there was at least one church 
where he had a right to worship, and one house within 
the ample accommodations of which he was sure to find 
a welcome and a home. All the varied charities of the 
diocese would naturally centre round this church, the 
feeling of proximity and union dwarfing differences, and 
at the same time magnifying strength. Its ample nave 
would scorn the necessity of tickets of admission, and an 
adjoining hall would seat our conventions. 

But the picture is too tempting ; I dare not enter on its 
more minute coloring. I claim, however, that in its broad 
features it is neither impracticable nor unreal, but the 
simple embodiment of the ever-growing experience of 
the Christian Church. 



30 CITY MISSIONS. 

If it be objected that the duties of such a diocese as 
New- York would not allow its Bishop time even for a 
general superintendence of such a work in its chief city, 
I see not how the answer can be avoided — the diocese is 
too large then for a single Bishop. If the cities of New- 
York and Brooklyn, with their one hundred and fifteen 
clergy, and hundreds of thousands of souls, and tens of 
thousands of poor, can afford work enough for the ener- 
gies of any man, why may they not have a Bishop of 
their own ? There may at present be practical difficul- 
ties in the way ; but why should not the early Church 
principle be acknowledged by us, that wherever there is 
work for a Bishop, there there should be one. 

These are startling times, and the Bride of Christ needs 
to be awake ; "for she knows neither the day nor the 
hour when her Lord may come. 5 ' In the Mission work 
of our great, I might almost say fearful city, whatever 
has as yet been done only brings out more glaringly 
what has been left undone. A broad, deep, and expen- 
sive effort is needed. What was said of the English 
nation might well be applied to our Church : " she can- 
not engage in a little war." With all her claims, her 
wealth, and her prominence, it is impossible that the 
Episcopal Church of the Diocese and City of New- York 
should carry on a little City Mission. A little war against 
the vast host which Satan is daily training within our 
midst in the dextrous use of his own deadly weapons, is 
impossible for us. Our wealthy communicants, all sworn 
servants of the Cross of self-denial, and our wealthv 
parishes, especially that of " Trinity," must all come 
forward to the work. One extra tithe from every 
Churchman in the diocese would do it all ; and at this 
season, when the Church warns us that at any moment 



CITY MISSIONS. 3 1 

the Master may come in all the glory of eternal majesty, 
to require of every Church and of each individual an 
account of his stewardship, is it wise to hesitate ? You, 
Sir, are the one to speak the word ; the diocese looks to 
you ; the poor, the homeless, the despised, all cry to you ; 
and I have full faith that a call from you would at once 
bring to your hand the earnest men, the devoted women, 
and the heaps of gold. 

St. Barnabas' Rectory, 

%cl week in Advent, 1856. 



■ - 



SUPPLEMENT. . 



SUPPLEMENT. 



-^-*^^>>> 



Johxsox defines a " Supplement" to be " an addition 
to supply defects;" now, as the object in adding any 
thing to the above Report is, that its defects may be 
supplied by the words of those who are wiser and more 
experienced than the writer, I have adopted the term as 
more suitable to an appendix, which will contain matter 
of more value and of more interest than that to which, 
it is appended. 

The extracts, most of which are taken from publications 
not generally accessible to the American reader, will, 
when necessary, be linked together by a few explanatory 
remarks, following in their subjects the order of the 
Report. 

" I am sure, if you will calmly reason and reflect, you 
must agree with me, that sin lies at our door somewhere / 
that we have wronged the poor, and, therefore, we must 
restore four-fold; that we have treated with injustice 
those whom Christ loves most, as nearest to and most 
like Him, and, therefore, now must make atonement. 
Look round for the poor. In which of the churches are 
they ? They have been driven from the pews to the 
open seats, and from the open seats to the door, and from 
the door — the door of God's house — they have been 
driven to the conventicle ; or worse, may be, to the 
preaching of the infidel in the parks and open places of 



36 CITY MISSIONS. 

the streets ; or worse may be still, to the depths and 
darkness of despair in their own uninstructed hearts, — 
discontented, ready for rebellion, alone, friendless, un- 
loved, unloving. I do announce to you, my brethren, as 
God's ambassador, that - the poor have not the Gospel 
preached to them' — and so announcing it, I implore you 
to give heed. There is a grievous disease amongst us — 
a heavy charge against us — a fearful sin— the neglect of 
the characteristic of Christ's holy religion — ' The 
Preaching of the Gospel to the poor.' And so 
announcing it, I implore you to „come forth and help in 
its remedy. God will no doubt forgive us the wrong we 
have done if we honestly arise, and do our best to redeem 
it for the sake of Christ. Let us do so. Let us take up 
the Gospel in one hand, and say — ' We come, though it 
be too late — but still we come, and now at length will do 
our best. We come to teach you, O ye poor, the words 
of heavenly wisdom. May God forgive us that we have 
so long neglected you. Turn to us and hear wdiat we 
have to say, confessing our sin, and pray for us again in 
the communion of our Church, as we for vou.' " — Sermons 
preached at S. Barnabas JPimlico. Preface, p. xxv. 

Are there any Poor in the City of New- York ? The 
report of "the New- York Association for Improving the 
Condition of the Poor," for 1856, shall answer: 

" Increase of population in the State in 20 years 61 
per cent. 

" Increase of pauperism during the same period 706 
per cent. 

" Statistical analysis shows that during the past year 
there was in this State one pauper for every eleven 
persons. A greater proportion than that of Ireland or 



CITY MISSIONS. 37 

the poorest country in Europe. * ' * * It appears, also, 
that two-thirds of the pauperism of the entire State 
(231,500) were relieved in the city of New- York." 

Here, then, is a noble field for our " City Mission" — 
231,500 souls — it could hardly wish a wider one, being 
in truth a great city in itself; and even this is not all, 
for it does not include those who have been assisted or 
supported by individual churches and private charity. 
And now let this Report — the Report, mark it, not of a 
religious Society, but of what might be called a politico- 
charitable one — point out to us as a Church our duty in 
this matter. 

" To remove the evil, we must remove the causes ; and 
these being chiefly moral — whatever subsidiary appliances 
may be used — they admit only moral remedies. Make 
the individuals composing the great mass of paupers in- 
dustrious, sober, virtuous, and the work of social regen- 
eration will be effected. 

" The utter inadequacy of all efforts to effect thorough 
social reforms irrespective of character, is most evident. 
This has ever caused the failure of socialists, communists, 
a defective Protestantism, and of all the schemes of mere 
political economists. The relentless logic of experience 
on this subject carries with it divine sanction, and cannot 
be successfully resisted. Whatever is done for the relief 
of the great mass of the degraded poor, without a reform 
of character, renders them not only more exacting and 
dependent, but actually multiplies in themselves and in 
their offspring the evils designed to be removed. * * * 
Reform, in short, without the resreneratins: element of 
Christianity, will be ever beginning and ever compassing 
its own defeat. 

" Where is the community that exemplifies the com- 



38 CITY MISSIONS. 

mands, ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,' and 
c Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so unto them. 5 If none such can be found, and 
an imperfectly devekrped Christianity has achieved more 
for intellectual and social advancement within the past 
three centuries, than human wisdom had devised in all 
previous ages, what elevating results may not be ex- 
pected when there shall be a better fulfilment of Christian 
duties, and its renovating power be universally felt and 
obeyed ! 

" Who will affirm of any living man, that he is irre- 
claimable ? If there is less hope of adults, there is greater 
hope of children, who are the promise of the future. The 
work is vast and difficult, and will require time for its 
accomplishment. It is a work in which all mere human 
devices have signally failed, and ever will fail. But it 
will yield to the divine method. The supernatural effi- 
ciency of Christianity is adequate to the work. There is 
d divine power in the word and example of the world's 
Redeemer that is able to cure ail the ills of humanity. 
* * * The social problem, in short, finds a practical 
solution in the principles of Christianity as set forth in 
the teaching, and illustrated by the example, of Christ 
and his apostles." — Report of the N. Y. Association 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor, for 1856, 
pp. 37-39. 

Now to whom ouo'ht langmaore like this to come home 
so pointedly as to the parishes of the Episcopal Church 
in the diocese and city of New-York, — claiming, as they 
do, that the poor are their heritage, and headed as 
they are by a parish whose wealth enables it at least to 
commence the work in something like an adequate 
manner ? 



CITY MISSIONS. 39 

Suitable Lodging-Houses. — The true way to show the 
Importance of proper lodging-houses, is to describe the 
present state of things as regards the tenement-houses 
owned by individuals, and in which the great mass of 
the poor now reside, or rather huddle together. The fol- 
lowing is from the Report of the Committee appointed 
by our last Legislature to inquire into the matter : 

" A number of these dwellings were visited by your 
Committee. In one building, one hundred and ten fami- 
lies are gathered, some of them numbering eight or ten 
members, occupying one close apartment ; and huddled 
indiscriminately in damp, foul cellars, to breathe the air 
of which is to inhale disease. Here, in their very worst 
aspect, are to be seen the horrors of such a mode of living. 
Here are to be found drunken and diseased adults, of 
both sexes, lying in the midst of their filth ; idiotic and 
crippled children, suffering from neglect and ill-treatment ; 
girls just springing into womanhood, living indiscrimi- 
nately in the same apartment with men of all ages and all 
colors ; babes left so destitute of care and nourishment, 
as to be only fitted for a jail or hospital in after years, if 
they escape the blessing of an early grave. Indeed, no 
language could faithfully depict the sufferings and misery 
witnessed even in the hurried visits paid by the Com- 
mittee, to these hotbeds of immorality, drunkenness, de- 
bauchery and disease. 

" Scarcely an apartment was free from sickness and 
disease, and the blighting curse of drunkenness had fallen 
upon every family. Here and there might be found, it 
is true, some attempt at cleanliness, some display of a 
love of home, some evidence of industry and sobriety, 
with their natural accompaniments, cheerfulness and good 
health. But these, your Committee found, were in most 



40 CITY MISSIONS. 

instances in families that had not long been inhabitants 
of the neighborhood in which they lived. * * * This 
is no fancy sketch — no picture of the imagination. It is 
a stern reality, enacted every day in the midst of luxury 
and wealth — the natural and fearful result of the rapacity 
of landlords in an over-crowded city — unrestrained by 
conscience, and wholly unchecked by legislation. 

" Many of the buildings that are thus rented to the 
poor, realize for their owners larger annual incomes than 
do the first-class dwelling-houses in the best parts of the 
city." — Report of the Committee of the Legislature on 
the Tenement Souses of JVeio-Tbr7c and Brooklyn, 1856. 

Under the " Act to authorize the formation of corpo- 
rations for the erection of buildings, passed April 5th, 
1853," a company was formed, August 3d, 1854, com- 
posed of some of the most wealthy and respectable men 
of our city, to erect a suitable building, and try the effect 
of a model Lodging-house. A lot, extending through 
from Mott-street to Elizabeth-street, was purchased, and 
upon it was erected a building 53 ft. front and 188 ft. 
deep, containing 87 suits of apartments, each suit con- 
taining four rooms and a closet, having a front window, 
and being of equal size and value. The building, which 
is known as " The Working-man's Home," cost $60,000, 
the lots $30,000 ; the rents, according to the story, vary 
from $5.50 to $8.50 per month, and at these prices net 
about 6 per cent, on the whole expenditure ; it is occupied 
entirely by colored families, and few rooms are ever 
vacant. 

The following is an abstract of the rules : 

Tenants are admitted by the month on payment of rent 
in advance, and are subject to the following rules : 

1. House open from 5 A. M., till 12 at night. 



CITY MISSIONS. 41 

2. Gas extinguished at 10 o'clock, except one light in 
each hall. 

3. Each tenant must give a week's notice of his wish 
to remain, before the end of each month. 

4. Enforces cleanliness, and declares that each tenant 
shall make good any damage done by himself or family. 

5. The main halls not to be encumbered in any way. 

6. Forbids intoxicating liquors being brought to or 
kept in the house, and declares that intemperate persons 
will not be admitted as tenants or allowed to remain. 

7. Forbids all disorderly conduct, card-playing, gam- 
bling, " policy-playing," quarrelling, lighting, or profane 
or abusive lan^uasre. 

8. The hall on his floor to be swept in turn by each of 
the tenants. 

10. "A wilful breach of any of the above rules will 
cancel the contract, and subject the party to expulsion 
from the house." 

" On the upper floor are two large adjoining rooms, 
measuring together 53 by 50 ft., which can be thrown 
into one or disconnected, at pleasure. They are designed 
for lectures, concerts, or moral and educational uses for 
the inmates during the week, and for Sunday-school and 
religious observances on the Sabbath." 

" The result has been highly satisfactory, and those 
who take an interest in such enterprises, would do well 
by a personal inspection to witness for themselves how 
much order, neatness, quiet and comfort may be secured 
to such a community, in a building adapted to tenant 
purposes." — Report of Association for the Poor, p. 46. 

The writer Avas allowed to visit this " Home" some 
time since, in company with one of its principal managers, 
and can testify to its perfect order and neatness, and to 

3* 



42 CITY MISSIONS. 

the apparent comfort of all its inmates ; the only diffi- 
culty seeming to be this, that it could not pretend to 
supply the deepest want, that of proper tenement-houses 
for the lowest poor. This class now obtain what are 
called rooms from Si. 50 to $4.00 a month ; it is therefore 
impossible to touch them in a building where the lowest 
rent is §5.50. This, however, is no real difficulty, and 
may be met by a cheaper site and a more inexpensive 
building. Although, as is seen, a large room is set apart 
for educational and religious purposes in this Working- 
man's Home, there was then no one responsible for 
religious services. A well organized " City Mission 55 
w^oulcl not have long left a building of this kind, having 
a chapel-room, and containing some 350 souls, without at 
least the offer of a chaplain. 

Mission Houses. — As a kindred subject, I may here be 
allowed to call attention to the principle of " Mission 
Houses, 55 or houses of temporary refuge. The following 
account of " St. Stephen's House, 55 Boston, taken from 
one of the reports of the missionary, the Rev. E. M. 
P. Wells, will oiye some idea of the character of such 
houses : 

" St. Stejiheii's House. — We are about closing the 
fourth year of the experiment of this house. It was com- 
menced as an experiment, not on my part with a doubt 
as to its usefulness or its success, so far as its own opera- 
tions were concerned. The experiment w&s,jfirst, w r hether 
it would be supported ; and secondly, as to the extent 
and amount of its usefulness. As to the first part of the 
experiment, it has been thus far supported by donations 
entirely voluntary ; and although we could have done 



CITY MISSIONS. 43 

more — much more — and at a less comparative expense, 
if the amount given had been greater — yet what we 
have done' has been accomplished at so little expense, 
that the second part of the experiment — the extent of its 
usefulness — has been far beyond what I had expected, 
and fully equal to what I hoped for. The object in 
opening this house, was to furnish relief to the destitute 
— at the least comparative expense, with the greatest 
comfort— in a way which should have the best moral 
and religious effect, and in a way to prevent, as far as 
possible, imposition. I will allude to each of these. 

" First, to furnish relief to the destitute at the least com- 
parative expense. The whole expenses of the house, in- 
cluding rent, provisions, fuel, wages, and other family 
expenses-«-after paying and deducting therefrom the ex- 
pense^ of my own family — is so small, that the board of 
those whom we have received amounts to only $1.50 per 
week, 25 cents per day, single meals 8 cents each ; bread 
and groceries, &c, which are given out of the house, are 
computed, as we purchase them, at wholesale prices. 
Secondly, to do this with the greatest degree of comfort to 
the assisted. We have furnished a warm house, clean 
beds, the best kind of plain food, and a quiet and peace- 
able household. Thirdly, to do this in a way which shall 
have the best moral and religious effect on those aided. 
We have been somewhat successful in our attempt to do 
away the abjectness which is too apt, and indeed some- 
what necessarily, to be felt by those who are compelled 
to receive assistance without returning an equivalent. 
This is always a great evil; yet, at present, it is like 
Voltaire's definition of money, ' a necessary evil.' While 
we attempt to keep men humble, we strive to raise them 
above abjectness, which is not humility ; to treat them 



44 CITY MISSIONS. 

with simplicity and as if they were brothers, — though of 
different conditions, and we and they God's creatures, — 
yet, withal, so as to preserve a due subordination, and a 
strict discipline. The following will give some idea of 
this : 

" Bides of St. Stephens House. — Rule 1. The "Word of 
God is the law of this house ; the will of God the rule ; 
the Son of God the master ; fulfilling His gospel the 
business, and the worship of God the relaxation of this 
house. 

"Rule 2. No person is to be sent away herefrom hungry, 
cold, or sick. Necessaries to the suffering must be fur- 
nished alike to ' a true catholic' and heretic ; Romanist 
and sectarian ; saint and sinner ; and for Christ's sake, 
' who gave himself for all.' 

" Rule 3. In giving instruction and correcting errors 
of heart and life, let it be done with a tear rather than a 
frown; and remember to • speak the truth with love,' 
rather than in wrath. 

" Rule 4. Every member of St. Stephen's household 
must attend daily morning and evening prayers, unless 
excused by the rector. 

" Rule 5. No beneficiary of this house is to be absent 
herefrom, except by general or particular permission. 

" Rule 6. Before commencing breakfast, dinner or 
supper, some one appointed must say the grace, or all 
must remain silent and each ask God's blessing for him- 
self. 

" Rule 1. The vulgar habits of chewing and smoking 
tobacco, and the use of ardent spirits, are forbidden in 
this house. 

" For religious improvement, we meet in church twice 



CITY MISSIONS. 45 

a day, where we kneel before our one, same God ; con- 
fess ourselves alike sinners ; pray to our Father, for each 
other as for ourselves ; mingle our voices, and strive to 
unite our hearts, in offering the same ' sacrifice of praise ;' 
profess the same ' faith once delivered to the saints ;' 
look to the same heaven, common for us all, to which we 
hope for admission through our one crucified Saviour ; 
baptized in the same fountain ; i all eat of the same 
spiritual meat ; all drink of the same spiritual drink,' the 
c body and blood of Christ ;' striving thus to be one 
under ' our Lord,' in * one faith,' through c one baptism.' 
At these services, every member of the household, per- 
manent and temporary, always attends, unless excused 
by me, on account of sickness or a really conscientious 
feeling of duty as to attending worship elsewhere. 

" The fourth thing in view, in opening the house, was 
to furnish the assistance, so as to prevent, as far as pos- 
sible, imposition. The very nature of the case almost 
necessarily prevents imposition. Impostors are a thought 
too wicked to fancy so regular and quiet a life ; even 
persons of ordinary irregular habits will not remain 
longer than severe necessity compels them, — unless, as 
I thank God has been true in many cases, they have been 
made better men by coming only for the meat which 
perishes." — St. Stephens Chapel, Heport, 1850. 

Religious Privileges of the Poor. 

Free and Open Churches. — We cannot have a better 
authority in this matter of " Free Churches" than that 
of our Provisional Bishop. As long ago as 1845, he thus 
writes : 

" We must not attempt to disguise the notorious fact 
that t\ie pew system, as commonly adopted in most of our 



46 CITY MISSIONS. 

churches, and especially in the larger towns and cities, is 
a flagrant violation of the plainest principles of the 
Gospel. It is not such a system as ought to be adopted 
by those who profess to ' love God with all their heart, 
and their neighbor as themselves.' *_-*** 
When we enter a crowded congregation where such a 
system prevails, what do we behold ? We see all those 
parts of the sacred edifice which are conspicuous, which 
are comfortable, which afford advantages for seeing and 
hearing, monopolized by the rich, held exclusively as pri- 
vate property by the rich, fitted up by them with every lux- 
urious accommodation ; while the poor and the stranger, 
if they can gain admission at all, are thrust off into some 
remote corner, where there are few comforts, and where 
it is almost impossible to see or to hear; and thus we 
behold, at first glance in that holy assembly, a spectacle, 
which flatly contradicts all their professions of humility 
and charity, which is an insult to the most glorious attri- 
butes of the Being whom they profess to honor and 
worship. Is it well that the lukewarm and the scoffer, 
on entering the house of God, should meet, at the very 
threshold, with such a practical demonstration of the 
worthlessness or of the inconsistency of Christian profes- 
sion?" — Remarks in favor of Free Churches, by Horatio 
Potter, D. D., 1845. 

" If the question should be asked, • Will our churches 
be filled if they are thrown open freely to the poor ¥ there 
is but this answer to be made to it : ' Ask that question of 
God by trying the experiment, and accept the answer 
that He himself will give you in reply to it.' " — The Pew 
System, by the Rev. Edward Stuart, If. A. — Masters, 
London. 

The importance of making the poor feel at home in 



CITY MISSIONS. 47 

our churches at the time of public worship, and the 
bearing of free churches upon that point, is too generally 
acknowledged to need any addition to the strong lan- 
guage, just quoted, of our Right Rev. Bishop. The 
bearing, however, upon the same point, of the practice of 
private devotion in churches, has not generally received 
sufficient consideration. 

" To the poor the Gospel is preached. They have the 
first claim on the care and motherly love of the Church. 
Now let us. ask what opportunities — I had almost said 
what possibilities — have they for private devotion ? We, 
able to retire where and when we will — we, with our 
separate chambers, when we would be alone — we, with 
our leisure, which may thus be sanctified — find it easy 
enough to talk to them on the necessity of praying 
always ; but, truly, it is something like saying, ' Depart 
in peace, be ye warned and filled.' We do not consider 
the crowded state of their cottages, the smallness of 
their rooms, the interruptions of their time, the claims of 
their children, &c. * * * The cottager's wife, would she 
not hail, as an inestimable privilege, the open church ? * 
* * The laborer returning: from toil in the sweat of his 
brow, if to an affectionate, yet to a noisy family, would 
not he rejoice to go in, for a few brief minutes, to the 
open house of God, and there recommend himself and 
his to his heavenly Father ? Can these and such as these, 
enter into their closets and pray to their father which 
seeth in secret ? * * * And yet we tell him, and we tell 
him rightly, he must. Where, when, and how, except it 
be in the open church ? * * * Here, for a few minutes, .let 
the poor be certain of the uninterrupted thoughts, and 
the gracious assistances, which they cannot elsewhere 
obtain ; those poor who have less power of abstraction, 



48 CITY MISSIONS. 

and are more sensible to external impressions than our- 
selves; those poor who have stronger temptations to 
believe themselves forgotten of God than we have. 
They w^ho love the poor will be for open churches."— 
" Private Devotion in Churches." — London, 1844. 

In the Report for 1852, of that noble Boston missionary, 
E. M. P. Wells, I find the following simple statement : 
" The church is kept open from early morning till night, 
for the comfort of private worship and other like purposes, 
besides the appointed services of the Church." 

" It must be a great blessing to the people to find the 
churches always open, especially in this great restless 
city (Paris.) The influence of the quiet of the Church 
on their minds, when harassed and distracted by cares 
and business, and even on their bodies, when exhausted 
by fatigue, must be salutary, soothing, and refreshing. 
The churches, in such a case, are like spiritual ports and 
havens, stretching out their arms to rescue them from the 
storm ; or like wells of water in the wilderness. Could 
we not imitate them in this ?" — " JYbtes at Paris" — 
London, 1854 — believed to be by Dr. 'Wordsworth. 

Let the reader now recall to mind the picture given by 
the committee of the Legislature, of the condition of the 
inmates of tenement-houses in this city and in Brooklyn, 
and then ask the question, " What can they know about 
private devotion ?" And if the thought will arise, what 
good would open churches be to those who have no 
religion at all ? still the answer might be made, that it 
was possible, through God's grace, that they might be of 
more use than those which six-sevenths of the year are 
closed and bolted. There need, however, be no hesitation 
in acknowledging the probable fact, that were all our 
churches thrown open on the moment, very few indeed 



CITY MISSIONS. 49 

would make use of them for purposes of private devotion. 
Still, however, if desirable, our people, and especially the 
poor, might be gradually taught so to use them ; and if, 
in spite of the corruptions of the Church of Rome, the 
practice among them is acknowledged by all to have a 
general salutary effect, what might not be hoped from it 
when disjoined from such corruptions ? 

The Hospital, 

Under this general title will be ranged all extracts 
bearing upon our public institutions, especially hospitals, 
as well as upon the question of employing women in 
missionary work. That there is missionary work to be 
done in such institutions, a few answers like the following 
from poor and suffering patients will abundantly prove. 

" ' Oh, that any one had come to speak seriously to me 
during the first days that I was brought in !' said a poor 
girl who had had a frightful accident ; ; I was so afraid 
I might die in my sins.' " 

" ' The chaplain is very kind,' said another ; ' but he 
has no time to hear all I should so much like to say to 
him."' 

" - I feel very lonely,' said a poor blind girl, who was 
in the darkened corner of a large ward ; ' I have been here 
two months, and I have had no one to speak to.' " 

" One patient said in a low, earnest voice, in answer to 
a remark about the importance of Christian love in a 
nurse, { And that is what is wanting here. There is 
kindness ; but when I thank the nurse, she says, it is my 
duty to do it ; and I feel it is just that — duty, and not 
love. There is no religion here ; it is all done as a pro- 
fession, and what is done in this spirit is hard and cold. 
I see what a nurse might do ; how she might check 



50 CITY MISSIONS. 

unseemly conversation, and encourage the good ; but 
there is nothing of the sort here.' " — Hospitals and Sis- 
terhoods, p. 2. 

It is not only a healthy sign, but likewise a proof 
how urgent must be the need, that this subject has at 
last called forth a decided advocacy on the part of our 
medical men and medical press. The following is from 
the editorial department of the "American Medical 
Monthly," for September, edited by Dr. Parker. 

"Money cannot buy what is needed to make a good 
nurse : and while monev alone is relied on as the induce- 
ment for qualified persons to enter upon these duties, 
just so long will the faults of which we complain continue 
to exist. 

" To what motive, then, can an appeal be made that 
shall call forth persons able and willing to perform these 
duties ? Without hesitation we reply, to religious prin- 
ciple, and to this alone : scoff as much as you choose, 
ridicule it, laugh at it, doubt it — it remains still true 
that this, and nothing else, can furnish to our Hospitals 
a corps of non-medical officers able and willing to perform 
their duties fully, faithfully, and intelligently . . . . " 

"We say openly that we are of those who believe 
there are other objects in life which should interest one 
more than gaining money ; and we can conceive it to be 
possible for persons to do from a desire to be useful, that 
which they would not from any other cause. We can, 
therefore, conceive it to be possible that persons should, 
from a desire to do good, devote themselves to the care 
of the sick." 

Without circumlocution, we at once say that there is, 
in our judgment, only one mode by which the sick of our 
Hospitals can be properly nursed, and that is, by placing* 



CITY MISSIONS. 51 

this department in the hands of sisterhoods, consisting 
of religious women, associated together for the purpose 
of taking care of the suffering, not with the expectation 
of making money, but with the desire to do good out of 
love to the Lord," — The American Medical Monthly, 
Vol. VI, JSTo. 3,p. 228. 

Sir Edward Parry, H. JsT., the late superintendent of 
the Haslar Hospital, Gosport, thus writes with respect 
to his charge : 

" It would be scarcely possible to overrate the import- 
ance, both to the souls and bodies of men, of employing 
in public hospitals nurses, possessing not only the re- 
quisite mechanical skill, but likewise a high tone of 
religious and moral principle. The locality of the noble 
institution, which I have the honor to superintend, ren- 
ders it extremely difficult — I may say impossible upon 
the present system — to secure the services of a sufficient 
number of nurses of even tolerably fair character ; and 
as the patients must have a certain number in constant 
attendance, it unavoidably follows that a considerable 
proportion of those, who are thus employed, are such as 
nothing but necessity would justify admitting into the 
establishment." 

" If I can but obtain a sober set, it is as much as I can 
hope for," was the reply of a medical man in charge of 
an English hospital, when asked with respect to the reli- 
gious character of the nurses ; and we doubt not, many 
in charge of our own hospitals would make the same 
answer. 

" Instead of a school where the patients return home 
to their families often renewed, generally improved, we 
see," says Florence Nightingale, " as every one conver- 



52 CITY MISSIONS. 

sant with hospitals well knows — a school, it may almost 
be said, for immorality and impropriety." 

Now to remedy all this there seems to be no feasible 
plan but that of sisterhoods. 

" There can be no question that the tide of popular 
feeling on this subject is fairly turned ; a great move- 
ment is taking place in favor of sisterhoods. * * 
The absolute necessity of some organized system of sisters 
of charity seems to be almost everywhere recognised 
among: us. 

" Nor is it only that the value and importance of their 
office has at length been recognised in England ; but 
there seems to be a general awakening to that truth 
never forgotten by the Church, however opposed by the 
world, that this high and blessed calling is indeed one of 
the true vocations of woman, one in which she may not 
only find her purest happiness here, and her exceeding 
great reward hereafter, but in which she may also largely 
benefit her fellow-creatures, and give full scope among 
the fatherless and widows to all those sympathies and 
affections natural to her sex, which in the life of the single 
woman, generally, are either turned to bitterness, or left 
to run miserably to waste. Very truly it may be said 
of the sister of charity, ' that the desolate hath many 
more children than she that hath an husband.' * * * 

" The first great principle which must evidently be laid 
down as the very foundation of the whole system, is 
clearly this — that it must be established and conducted 
in and by the Church alone. The sisters of charity must 
exist only as her handmaids, holding office from her, and 
in all things working for her." — Ecclesiastic, January y 
1855, p. 8. 

" An abundance of facts of this kind," (Facts collected 



CITY MISSIONS. 53 

by Mrs. Jameson with respect to the influence of women 
in the hospitals and prisons of Europe,) " ought to set us 
at rest as to the usefulness of female influence of an 
elevated kind amongst the criminal class. The harvest 
is there, if we had the reapers. Can we suppose either 
that British ladies will never be found to go forth as 
missionaries of charitable and reforming duty among de- 
praved people, as their continental sisters do ; or that 
there is any thing in the genius of our social institutions 
to make their interference undesirable ? Surely not. If 
they believe that they receive the Christian religion in a 
purer form than continental women do, how can they 
better show it than in working out, if possible, in a purer 
and hio-her form, Christ's divine breathings of love to the 
most lost. No doubt it requires special feelings as well 
as powers to form a vocation to so sacred a duty ; but so 
does it do in Roman Catholic countries likewise. We 
sincerely hope that we shall in a little time have our 
quiet, unobtrusive, but efficient sisterhoods, for the puri- 
fication and guidance of the fallen and unfortunate." — 
Chambers' Journal, Nov., 1856. 

" What charity wants in England is simply — organi- 
zation. There is money, there is piety, there is heart to 
help its work ; but there is no organization in doing it. 
We can scarcely desecrate that word Charity, by apply- 
ing it to our manner of working out our Poor Law 
system. * * * The workhouses are very fine-looking. 
What are the qualifications of their functionaries I do 
not know. It has sometimes seemed to me as if the chief 
requisites were such corpulent persons and surly man- 
ners, as might tend still more to convince the poor abject 
creatures beneath their rule, of the grievous mistake 
they made in being poor. * * * The workhouses, I 



4 . 



54 CITY MISSIONS, 

admit, may still be necessary and expedient as recepta- 
cles for the vicious and degraded poor, the vagabond or 
irreclaimable idler ; but it appears to me that there ought 
to be, in such a Christian land as England, houses of 
charity, really such, connected with the government and 
conducted in a manner worthy of their name. If such 
houses were organized as they ought to be, and placed 
under the charge of women who bore the same blessed 

CD 

title — sisters of charity — who, in connection also with the 
ladies and gentlemen of charity, so abundant in our land, 
should know personally the merits or demerits of all ap- 
plicants for relief in their localities; I cannot help think- 
ing that the anomaly which England, as a highly profess- 
ing Christian and religious country, presents to the eyes 
of foreign visitors, might be removed ; for we have not, 
as other nations have, the apology of poverty to plead 
for the degraded and afflicted state of our poor. 

" Now, some pious woman among our more organizing 
neighbors, cherishes a charitable project ; some rich and 
noble lady is impressed by an accident, or through a 
sorrow, with a desire .to do good. They both act in the 
same way. They know what they want to do, and each 
goes and makes that known to the Cure of her parish. 
Some money is either got or given, or they begin without 
any ; for money is not to be the vital and sustaining 
power. The object of each is defined. Finally the plan 
is drawn up ; the rules are formed. The whole plan is 
then submitted to the Bishop, and under the seal of Epis- 
copal sanction each of these women, in almost the two 
extremes of life, sets to her work : the poor one most 
probably becomes the head of her own ; the rich and 
noble one, having worldly ties, makes over her rules to 



CITY MISSIONS, 55 

a band of sisters, who are placed in her house, and carry- 
on the work of her foundation. 

" The great difference that strikes one between these 
institutions of charity and bur own, is, that ours usually 
die, and these usually live. These generally work ; and 
ours have a clog on the wheel, and very often will not 
work. These depend on their own constitution ; and 
ours on the fancies of committee members, or the direc- 
tion of an individual who to-day is, and to-morrow is 
not. These are a part of the Church, acting under, and 
with the Church's authority ; ours may have no authority 
from the Church, may be in opposition to such authority ; 
may not know whether they are a part of the Church, or 
a part of any other body ; or, if they are under the im- 
pression that they are of the Church, and have the 
Church's authority, may have it in such a nugatory form, 
that it proves rather a hindrance than a help— rather a 
source of perplexity than of utility. 

" These points are too difficult for me to deal with ; all 
I want to show is, that when we wish to form a charita- 
ble institution, we go a long way about in order to find 
the shortest road to our object. We collect money— in- 
dispensable certainly ; we form a tremendous list of com- 
mittee names, thinking perhaps of any thing, while 
doing so, except their exact adaptation to the plan we 
have in view. We get patrons and patronesses, noble 
and honorable people ; and presidents and vice-presi- 
dents ; and what we call officers, of all sorts ; and if by 
any chance this formidable band should meet in conclave, 
we find out the old proverb, that where there are many 
men there are many minds. And so the work sometimes 
comes to an end altogether : sometimes in the course of 
time changes its character so much, as to be scarcely the 



9 

56 CITY MISSIONS. 

same thing ; sometimes, after making a good deal of 
noise at its commencement, languishes away into ob- 
livion. Its organization is not within itself." — " Sisters 
of Charity" by Mrs. Jameson^ Letter IV. 

Sisters of Charity. 

" The type of the Sister of Charity is to be found in 
France, wiiere, the Protestants of that land assert, she . 
was Protestant in her birth. * * * She is, in general, 
a frank, lively, even merry-hearted woman; young or 
old as the case may be, but certainly one who, if she is 
old, has grown so in her work and calling, and seems in 
all its stages to retain her own nature. She is one whom 
you like to be with, even when well and happy ; with 
whom you can, if her time permit, chat and laugh. * * * 
You walk with her in the streets ; she nods to the chil- 
dren, returns the respectful salutations of ladies ; and if 
she meets any of the other sex, connected with the charita- 
ble, or officially charitable works of the place, she stops 
and speaks to them as she would do to the others, having 
perhaps her hand in her apron-pocket and a great bunch 
of keys at her side. 

" There is no formality about her ; none in appear- 
ance, none in manner, none in speech. Her dress is 
known, her work understood, her character respected. 
She is a privileged person, and can pass scot free where 
no other woman could. 

" The Sister of Charity is not a penitent ; not a contem- 
plative being ; she has nothing to do with silence, morti- 
fication, and seclusion. Except at night, and to suspi- 
cious places, she goes out alone, never two and two, unless 
occasion require. She goes about her charitable offices 



CITY MISSIONS. 57 



as a matter of daily business, quiet, quick, diligent and 
active. She seems one of every family where she goes, 
and yet she goes merely to perform her duties. 

" Both Protestants and Romanists claim the honor of 
the first founding of this Order of Charity in France. Pro- 
testants naming Robert le Mare, as its founder — Roman- 
ists, Vincent de Paul. Unfortunately for the former, 
there is but little known about him ; whereas, Vincent 
de Paul's work has become a matter of his tor v. His 
early life, as is generally the case with those whom God 
intends for some great work, was one of hardship. — c So 
we see Vincent de Paul, the young country priest, pre- 
pared for his district visiting societies, his Sisters of 
Charity, his hospital nurses, his labors among chained 
prisoners, and more especially among the galley-slaves, 
by his own apprenticeship to suffering and trial as a 
cajDtive and slave in Turkey.' 

■ First arose his ' Confrerie de Charite ' — an associa- 
tion of ladies for district visiting among the poor. At 
Chatiilon his preaching awakened to better things two 
young ladies who before had been awake to the world 
only, and they began to devote themselves to the poor. 
One of them asked him one day as he was going up to 
the pulpit, if he would not mention to the congregation 
the case of a poor family which greatly needed assist- 
ance : he did so, and the result was that much more was 
sent in than was then wanted. ' This led him to think if 
there was not a means to be found of systematizing 
charity, so as to prevent it from being thus called forth by 
an ebullition of feeling that would pass away with the 
circumstance that produced it. He communicated this 
reflection to some ladies of his parish, of fortune and 
piety, who entered with ardor into the design he was 

4 



58 CITY MISSIONS. 

forming. Vincent, therefore, drew up a plan for an asso- 
ciation which they were to form.' This is an extract 
from one of the statutes of this Confrerie : — -' Each asso- 
ciate shall in turn go to visit the sick; shall prepare -their 
food, and serve them with their own hands. They shall 
repeat to them some words of our Lord, and shall try to 
cheer and enliven them if they appear to he too much 
cast down by trouble. 5 He gave them a rule, and caused 
them to meet together each month to renort the g;cod 
done and that which was to be done. 

" From this, like associations were established through- 
out the neighboring country. But they needed to be 
visited and encouraged : he had not the time for it. 
' God, however, sent him a worthy instrument for such 
a work, in a pious and talented widow, named Le Gras, 
who at his desire undertook for several years to travel 
from place to place among the various branches of this 
association, visiting them in each parish, calling together, 
on her arrival in any place or village, the women who 
composed the association of charity in that place, in- 
structing, animating, directing, or helping them as they 
had need.' About seventeen years had passed, the ' associa- 
tion 5 had spread through the country and into the towns 
— some joined because it was the fashion, others could 
not act because their husbands feared for them the bad 
air of sick rooms. Thus the end was that it soon became 
necessary to dispense their charity by deputy, and to 
employ servants for that purpose, who had neither affec- 
tion nor ability. To remedy this disorder, it was neces- 
sary to have servants expressly trained for the purpose, 
and how to have them trained was a difficulty. 

" Vincent, after many trials and prayers, yielded to the 
anxious wish of Madame le Gras, and allowed her to 



CITY MISSIONS. 59 

consecrate the whole of her future life to this labor of 
love. It was towards the close of the year 1631% that he 
sent her three or four country girls, simple peasants. 
These were the first Sisters of Charity. Their numbers 
soon increased, and with that their works ; by degrees 
they were intrusted with the education of the foundlings, 
with the instruction of young girls who had no other 
means of obtaininG; it, with the care of a m-eat number of 
hospitals, etc. 

" Vincent gave them rules. They prescribe no severi- 
ties of any kind; the sisters observe no offices; their 
penance is their common life. ' To rise at four o'clock, 
summer and winter; to pray mentally twice a day; to 
live frugally ; to render to the sick even the lowest ser- 
vices ; to watch by them at night; to reckon as nothing 
the infected air of hospitals ; to fear not the horrors of 
death, or of the dying bed.' " — " Sisters of Charity" by 
Mrs. Jameson, Letter I. 

Protestant Deaconesses of Paris. 

Extract from the Rales. — " The institution is placed 
under the direction of a Council, which is composed of 
a Pastor, of the Superior, and three ladies. 

" All authority, as regards the sisters, is delegated to 
the Superior, to whom due obedience must be paid, and 
who is appointed to see that the rules are observed 
without additions or subtractions. 

" None can be admitted to the service of the Lord in 
the Deaconesses' Institution under the age of twenty, or 
above thirty-five, except for weighty reasons. 

" All Postulants are to produce the written consent of 
their families, unless they are orphans, widows, or above 
thirty years of age. A Postulant must be free from such 



60 CITY MISSIONS. 

duties as ought to retain her in her family, according to 
1 Tim. v. 8. 

" The Postulant on her entrance becomes an Aspirant 
Sister, and she will perforin the duties assigned to this 
title for six months ; after which she will, if found com- 
petent, become a novice, and will remain such for a year, 
before she can be admitted as a Deaconess. 

" She then enters into an engagement to work for two 
years, and this engagement is renewed every two years. 

" The three classes of Sisters are employed in the 
work for which they are most qualified ; they are required 
to perform it with perfect obedience. 

" Each Sister pays 500 francs (§109) per annum, till she 
becomes a Deaconess, after which she pays 250 francs 
($50,) and this is only required for the first two years. 

"When the funds of the institution allow of it, Sisters 
are received without payment. All remuneration arising 
from the Sisters' work belongs to the institution. 

" The Sisters are to wear a uniform costume. Each 
one will come well provided, and her wardrobe w^ill 
afterwards be renewed at the expense of the community, 
which will also nurse its sick members, and provide for 
those who spend their lives in the work. 

"When a Sister wishes to retire from the work, she 
must give notice to the Superior, and she can be released 
for a valid cause — such as intended marriage, the death 
of a relative, or any circumstances which may render her 
services necessary at home. 

" All the Sisters are trained during their novitiate for 
the various offices of nurse, teacher, visitor, etc. Every 
Sister sent out of the house to work will continue to act 
under the direction of the Superior; but she will be 



CITY MISSIONS. 61 

placed under the special protection of the pastor of the 
parish in which she is to work." 

The first house of this order of Protestant Deaconesses 
was opened in Paris in 1841, through the zeal and under 
the charge of Pasteur Vermeil. It advanced slowly but 
surely amid both encouragements and difficulties. Of the 
latter, the most important was the opposition of the cele- 
brated Pasteur Coquerel, who, through fear of an impu- 
ted copying of Romanism, objected to much of the disci- 
pline of the institution, engagements, costume, obedience, 
etc. To which Pasteur Vermeil replies, showing how 
unreasonable are his objections. Engagements of some 
kind are necessary in this as in any other work : those 
taken by the Sisters are not vows, though even if they 
were of a religious character like those made by sponsors, 
or in confirmation, still they would not be monastic. As 
to costumes, he says, " It certainly may produce pride ; 
but it also may produce humility. It may kindle differ- 
ent thoughts in different minds ; but that such a dress 
should indicate a return to Romish distinctions between 
a worldly and a holy life, is an exaggerated view. 
Though we see some objections to a uniform costume, we 
have adopted it, because it was impossible to do otherwise. 
Uniformity of dress is a necessity which must be submit- 
ted to, as soon as it is a question of associating in one 
work, and under one name, persons of all ranks. TTe 
have the maid-servant from the farm, coming in wooden 
clogs ; we have the young lady in silks and velvets : 
follow these in their work as Sisters, and tell me, if it 
would be possible to do without a costume. 

" As to obedience, without doubt I exact obedience ; 
where is it not exacted ? where can it be dispensed with ? 
Without obedience there would be no subordination, 



62 CITY MISSIONS. 

and there would be an end of family ties, of social ties, 
of the Church itself. Without obedience no organization, 
no association, no work in common is possible ; all would 
crumble away and be dissolved." — Hospitals and Sister- 
hoods, London. 

Deaconess Institution at Ifaiser worth, on the Rhine. 

"This Institution was opened by Pastor Fliedner, 13th 
October, 1836. Of the 190 Sisters in connection with it 
at present, 128 are Deaconesses and 62 as yet Probation- 
ers : 22 out of this number are Instructing Sisters ; the 
rest are Nursing Sisters. 

" This Central Institution (Mother-house) contains 
within its precincts seven branch institutions, which have 
been established by degrees for the purpose of training 
the Probationers. 

1. "A hospital with 120 beds, which are generally 
full. More than 6,000 patients have been received here 
since its establishment. 

2. " A lunatic asylum, for females only ; this contains 
fifteen patients. 

3. " An infant school with forty children. 

4. " An orphan asylum with twenty-seven Protestant 
girls, chiefly daughters of clergymen, missionaries, &c. 

5. " A day-school for thirty-five girls. 

6. "A seminary (normal school) for schoolmistresses 
as well as nursery and other governesses. More than 
400 have been trained here since its establishment in 
1836. 

7. " A penitentiary for released female prisoners and 
Magdalens ; it receives from fourteen to sixteen inmates. 

" These seven branch institutions, which at the present 



CITY MISSIONS. 63 

moment contain 390 inmates, are conducted, and all the 
domestic details are attended to bv Deaconesses, assisted 
only in the male wards by five men-nurses. Each depart- 
ment has its superintending Sister, and one Deaconess, 
who has the special charge of the Probationers, but all 
under the immediate direction of Pastor Fliedner and his 
excellent wife, who is loved and honored as a mother by 
all the Deaconesses. An assistant chaplain, one gr two 
masters, and a physician and surgeon, are also attached 
to the institution. In the pecuniary details Pastor 
Fliedner is assisted by a committee of gentlemen. 

" The Probationers have to go through a course of 
practical instruction in each of these branch institutions 
during their term, of probation, with the exception of the 
seminary for schoolmistresses, which those only of the 
Probationers have to attend who intend to become In- 
structing: Deaconesses. 

" Of the 128 Deaconesses, 97 are stationed in different 
parts of Europe, Asia and America. Of the remaining 
thirty-one, about twenty are employed in the different 
institutions at Kaiser worth. Some are constantly en- 
gaged in nursing the sick in private families, their ser- 
vices being repaid to the institution. A few reside at 
Kaiserworth who are unable, either from ill-health or 
from old age, to do the full work of a Deaconess. For 
this last class a 'Resting House'' has just been erected, 
under the patronage of the King of Prussia. 

" As an instance that ladies of rank do not at Kaiser- 
worth undergo a training merely pro formd^ but go 
through all the details of hospital nursing, on the prin- 
ciple that you cannot teach or direct others in what you 
do not practically understand yourself, it may be stated, 
that Baroness Ranzan had acquired so great a skill in 



6 4 CITY MISSIONS. 

bandaging, that the poor sick people at Kaiserworth were 
known to ask for her help in preference to that of any 
other nurse/' — Hospitals and Sisterhoods, London, 

Petiies Sceurs des Pauvres. 

" Fifteen years ago the Abbe Le Pailleur, one of the 
priests of St. Suvan, a little town on the north, coast of 
Brittany, turned his thoughts to the relief of the many 
sick and aged poor he sav/ around him. Funds he had 
none with which to establish any asylum for such cases : 
but he trusted that he might awaken in others the same 
desire lie had himself to see such a work accomplished. 
' "It was not long before his wish was gratified. A 
young woman of his parish, Marie Augustine, who was not 
in the abit of coming to him for confession, came one day 
to consult him respecting her long-cherished desire to 
deyote her life to the good of others, and to state her 
difficulty, dependent as she was upon her needle. 

" He encouraged her wish. He put her in communica- 
tion with another young girl, Marie Therese, an orphan, 
whose mind was turned to the same objects. He advised 
them to assist each other in growing in grace and in the 
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to continue 
their present employments, assuring them that God 
would call them to His especial service in His own good 
time. 

" For tVv r o years they continued at their respective 
work, meeting together on Sunday, and after Church 
going down to the sea-shore, where in a quiet spot they 
read and prayed together. Towards the end of the two 
years, M. Le Pailleur explained his plans to them, and 
told them that he thought the time had come for them 



CITY MISSIONS. 65 

to commence their true work. He united with them a 
third person, Jeanne Jugan, then about forty years of 
a°re, and whose name has since become well known 
throughout France, who lived by herself, and possessed 
about 600 francs (§120) ; he then gave in charge to them 
a poor blind woman, who was brought to the cellar where 
they all lived. 

" The remaining space in the cellar was soon occupied 
by another old woman, of whom they undertook the care. 
Jeanne earned money by spinning ; the two young 
women by needlework ; their leisure hours were devoted 
in nursing these poor women, and their savings spent in 
procuring comforts for them. They made it their great 
rule to have no care for the future, but to ' cast all their 
care on Him who careth for them :' to love God with all 
their heart and soul, and in love to serve one another. 

" A fourth handmaid to the poor joined the work, 
She was, as she thought, on the brink of the grave, and 
her desire was to consecrate her last days to God. Her 
life was spared, her health restored, and from that time 
she devoted herself entirely to the work. 

" For ten months they continued in this cellar, at the 
end of which time it was thought well to enlarge their 
work. A ground floor was hired, damp and inconvenient 
indeed, but large enough for twelve beds, which were 
filled immediately. 

" They had not now enough to supply their poor with 
food; they therefore commenced to go out themselves 
to beg from house to house for what was necessary. 
Their visits roused a spirit of charity ; but the work ad- 
vanced slowly. God allows trials to fall upon them to 
try their faith and prove their constancy. Such a work, 
by such instruments, was quite new. People questioned 

4* 



66 CITY MISSIONS. 

the possibility of ignorant workwomen gathering them- 
selves into a community; and various suggestions were 
made for their joining themselves to some order already- 
existing. * * * But the Spirit of God is not bound, 
and M. Le Pailleur was persuaded that this was a new 
work, and that new laborers were required for it. Mean- 
time they had much to undergo. They were constantly 
ridiculed as they went through the streets of St. Suvan, 
and many w^ere in consequence deterred from joining 
them. 

" It happened one day that two needle-women came 
to offer to mend the linen. One of the Sisters had beg- 
ged in the neighborhood, and had spoken of all that 
was done by the new institution. Being out of work, 
they thought they could not better employ their time 
than in offering to perform this charity. They stayed 
a few days, and then took their leave, promising to re- 
turn. And they did return, not to give God the super- 
fluity of their time, but to give Him all their lives, and 
all their powers. 

" The number of the poor continually increased ; and 
when the ground-floor rooms were full, in 1842, they 
fearlessly bought a large house, once occupied by a re- 
ligious community. It is true they had little to buy it 
with. The Abbe Le Pailleur sold his gold watch, and 
V\ T hatever he could spare of plate and furniture. Jeanne 
gave her 600 francs, another the fruit of her savings, and 
in faith they trusted to procure the rest. JS T or were they 
disappointed; within the year the contract of 20, COO 
francs (§4,000) was entirely paid. The Sisters now took 
the vows, and the name of the Little Sisters of the Poor. 
The pious founder drew up the simple rules by which 
they were to live, adding to the vows of poverty, obedi- 



CITY MISSIONS. 6 



h 



ence and chastity, that of hospitality. In eighteen months 
the great house was filled ; fifty poor were lodged in it, 
and the number of the Sisters increased. 

" God's gracious care was manifested now, as in their 
season of probation. Though they had no other resources 
than begging, they never were without food. The Sisters 
always dined after the poor, and if there was any scarcity, 
it was they, and not the poor, who felt it. One winter 
evening, after the poor were in bed, the Sisters sat down 
to their supper, which consisted of a quarter of a pound 
of bread, all that remained in the house. Grace was 
said ; and they heartily thanked God for His never-fail- 
ing care. The Sisters merrily contended which should 
be made to eat this remnant, each declaring they did not 
need it. At this moment the bell rang. They opened 
the door ; it was an abundant supply of bread and meat 
from the priest. Hundreds of almost similar instances 
might be given ; and strengthened in faith by the sup- 
port received, they worked on with increasing devotion, 
feeling day by day the importance of the work to which 
God had called them. 

" The souls of the unfortunate beings thev relieved, 
were first brought to God by the love and charity which 
were shed around them. They who had been immersed 
in ignorance and sin, began to live and to hope, and to 
learn to love and bless Him who in the hour of their 
sorrow had sent them such help. * * * They used 
to go out early, with great cans divided into compart- 
ments, to receive bread, meat, vegetables, &c. In the 
house they w r orked with the energy that was required 
to take care of so many poor. In the asylum might be 
seen every conceivable kind of distress; but rays of joy 
and gladness were shed over this accumulation of disease 



68 CITY MISSIONS, 

and poverty. The souls therein were blessed ; they saw 
and loved Christ. In the poor they nursed, the Sisters 
honored their Lord ; and the poor honored Him in the 
Sisters/' 

By degrees their good report spread abroad, and they 
were called for in other places. Wherever they were 
called there some of the Sisters went, and an asylum was 
at once established without money and apparently with- 
out difficulty, and never were they left in want of what 
was necessary for the support of their poor. " In most 
towns the Sisters are accustomed to beg in the market- 
place. In Nantes, in the first few days, one of them 
presented herself m the vegetable market, asking the 
market-women for something for the aged poor, for the 
love of God. 4 With, all my heart,' said the first she 
asked, c because what you are doing is so beautiful V 
' Certainly, my sister,' said a second, ' because when I 
am old I may require your house.' Three bags were 
filled with their gifts. The Sister overwhelmed them 
with thanks, and threw one of the bags over her shoul- 
ders. They instantly took it from her, and carried it 
themselves to the asylum, saying when they left her, 
■ Come to us every Wednesday and Saturday, and do 
not cease. to pray for us.' 

" The alms of the rich, no doubt, have greatly bene- 
fited the institution ; nevertheless, the peculiar character 
of the work is the popular sympathy it excites. Every- 
where the assistance of the poor was called forth ; as in 
the case of the market-women at Mantes, so we find it 
elsewhere. At Bordeaux, the butchers and other victual- 
lers manifested great generosity. At St. Suvan, not only 
did the artisans contribute their labor, but the sailors in 
the port levied a contribution of a half-penny per week 



CITY -MISSIONS, 69 

upon each of their number, and brought their offering to 
the asylum every Sunday. In other places, soldiers 
saved a portion of their rations to empty into the Sisters' 
baskets. At Bordeaux and Rouen there was an unusual 
amount of popular sympathy. The first time the Sisters 
went to the market-place in Rouen, they excited quite a 
tumult. They were already known ; they were followed 
— each one was anxious to make their own offering ; they 
were bid to repeat their visits, and only reproached when 
they did not come often enough to receive what each 
vender had set apart for them. The town was so large, 
and the poor so numerous, that the begging Sisters had 
recourse to a donkey ; and this, with the harness, was 
given to them. When the donkey was seen on its beat, 
with its panniers and an inscription stating to whom it 
belonged, the inhabitants used to come out to fill the 
baskets with their own hands. 

" One of the chief manufacturers of Rouen writes to 
M. Le Pailleur, saying : ' Formerly my work-people 
only occupied themselves with socialism, but since the 
arrival of the Little Sisters they speak of nothing but 
of their zeal and virtue.' * * * At the time of the 
consecration of their chapel, when M. Le Pailleur thanked 
one of the manufacturers for his noble support to the 
institution, he took the Abbe's hand, and with tears in 
his eyes he answered : ' The gratitude is on my side ; 
before I knew the Sisters, I did not know Christ ; they 
have made me see Him, know Him, love Him. I know 
now what peace is. I am a Christian, and I owe it to 



vou.' 

ml 



" Who could resist the sermons the Sisters preached 
by their works ? ' One, a rich though close man, was 
induced to go one day to the asylum intending to give 



70 CITY MISSIONS. 

live francs : instead, he gave a hundred, and became its 
benefactor. 5 One day he thus expressed his gratitude to 
the Superior : ' My mother, with your poor you have 
opened the gates of heaven to me ; before I knew you, 
I was a bad Christian, I did not love the poor — now I 
love the poor, and I love God.' 

"At present the Order contains between five and six 
hundred Sisters, and there are thirty-three houses." — 
Hospitals and Sisterhoods, London. 

Thus, fifteen years ago two poor girls, with the aid of 
their pastor, commenced in a little town of France a 
work, the value of which it is now utterlv bevond the 
power of man to estimate, either in itself or in the en- 
couragement which it must and will s;ive to all those 
who, anxious to serve Christ in his poor, are afraid that 
they have neither the means nor the education to do so. 
If the foregoing narrative meets the eye and stirs the 
heart of any such — no matter how poor or how ignorant 
— let her take courage by remembering what God has 
done ; let her ask advice of those appointed by God to 
advise her ; and let her follow their advice, never doubt- 
ing God's love or God's power. 

" The perusal of what has gone before will prove, that 
it is no longer a question which remains to be answered 
for coming generations, whether Associations for Women, 
or Protestant Sisterhoods, are likely to succeed or not. 
The problem has been solved already ; and we can see, 
with our own eyes, the blessed fruits which such institu- 
tions are bearing. 

' The work itself, as every one must feel, is in an emi- 
nent degree a work of faith as well as of love, and there- 
fore a work well worthy to be followed by Christian 
women. * * The object to be had in view, in 



CITY MISSIONS. 71 

organizing and carrying on such a labor of love, is not 
merely to learn how to alleviate the sufferings of mankind, 
and more especially of the poor and needy, but to seek 
Christ among our brethren upon earth. It is to make 
the care of the body— according to the example of our 
blessed Lord Himself — a channel whereby to arrive at 
the hearts and minds of men ; and so to influence them for 
good for time and for eternity, by leading them to seek 
in Christ, their Saviour, and through Him, in God, their 
Father. * . " * ■* 

" We would impress upon the hearts and consciences 
of those women whom God has blessed with superior 
station, or with powers above their equals — with greater 
perseverance, with more intuitive quickness to see the 
wants of mankind, and to apply the remedy with a larger 
store of self-den vino- affection towards all men ; above all, 
with a heart overflowing with love to God and love to 
man — to take the lead in so great, so glorious a work. Let 
them fit themselves first for this labor of love, by learning 
how to nurse the sick, how to soothe the afflicted, how to 
comfort the mourner, how to touch the hearts of the care- 
less and indifferent, and how to direct and teach all to love 
their God and their Saviour, and thus be ready to set on 
foot an Association or Sisterhood, in which, combining 
cheerfully with others of their own sex of the middle 
classes, the more gifted shall instruct the less gifted, the 
experienced guide the inexperienced, the strong help the 
weak; and in which all shall have but one object in view 
— to do good to their brethren on earth, out of love to 
their heavenly Master. 

" With these few words of exhortation, to which we 
have felt ourselves constrained to give utterance, we 
would resign this great cause in faith and hope into the 



72 CITY MISSIONS,. 

hands of Him who worketh not as man worketh, and who 
can, if it be His blessed will, stir up the heart of some 
one or other in this land to heed the call and offer herself 
for this important work. And we would ask those into 
whose hands the above may fall, to read it in the same 
spirit in which it has been written; and if our sentiments 
find an echo in their hearts, we entreat them to forward 
the work by all the means at their command. Let those 
who can, be ready to give of their abundance, and let all 
strive to seek out among their friends and. acquaintance 
one who has both the will and the power to devote herself 
iii this way to her heavenly Master : that so if it shall 
please God to bless the joint work of our hands, an insti- 
tution similar in spirit and organization to that at Kaiser- 
worth may ere long spring up in our land, a precious 
heirloom to coming generations."— Hospitals mid Sish 
terhoodS) London. 

Penitentiary V/orh 

We here have a great branch of Mission work which 
must either be done by women or not done at all. On 
the ladies, therefore, of this city, is the burden of this 
question thrown. Shall their fallen sisters be left alone to 
perish, or w r iil some come forward for Christ's sake and 
help to train them in the paths of penitence and virtue? 
The work is already begun. " The House of Mercy," in 
this city, now in full operation, is the result of the self- 
denying labors of one. Where are the hundreds who 
should be ready to help her to carry out and extend the 
w x ork ? Let those who wish, to know more about this 
institution visit it, and see, and ask for themselves. In 
England this work is now fairly started, and that too on 
a noble scale. A general Penitentiary Association has 



CITY MISSIONS. ^3 

been formed, which now embraces some six or seven coun- 
try Homes, besides several Houses of Refuge in London. 
The following brief account of the two Homes of Clewer 
and Wantage, will give some idea of the character, diffi- 
culties, and requirements of this most noble work. 

House of Mercy, Cleioer. — " Clewer is a suburban 
parish bordering upon Windsor, and embraces within its 
limits one of those sin-stricken spots too often found in 
the purlieus of our populous towns and in the neighbor- 
hood of barracks. It has pleased God that within sight 
of this haunt of vice our first Church Penitentiary should 
arise. It was commenced on the 19th of June, 1849, by 
Mrs. Tennant, the widow of a clergyman of the Church 
of England, then residing in the village of Clewer, under 
circumstances which seemed, humanly speaking, to be 
the merest chance. This lady had some time before 
taken into her house, and was training to be a servant, 
a girl found living in peculiarly grievous sin in the dis- 
trict above alluded to ; but until the day mentioned 
there had been no idea of receiving any other such case. 
On that day I was in search of a temporary lodging for 
a girl whom it was intended as soon as possible to send 
to the Magdalen, when Mrs. Tennant, hearing of my 
inquiry, at once offered to lodge -her, and as many more 
as could be brought, in her own home. This girl told us 
of another, a companion, living in the same wretched 
house she had just left, who, she was sure, would also glad- 
ly come away. With her assistance this second girl was 
rescued that same evening. It was an instance of what 
we have since not unfrequently found, that penitents 
become anxious for old companions, urging us to endeavor 
to find them out and rescue them. The day following, 



4 



CITY MISSIONS. 



four others made known their wish to come, and were 
received. As tidings of what was being done spread, 
others begged for admittance. Two came from the town 
and rang at the gate ; another came in from a neighbor- 
ing village ; some were sent by friends from a distance. 
Within three months no less than eighteen were admitted. 

" Our intention was only to house them for a while, 
till they could be transferred to a London penitentiary. 
But as the numbers increased, and they became fondly 
attached to their benefactress, and she urgently desired 
to devote herself to their care, the idea arose of forming 
an institution to be carried on in the same spirit in which 
the work had been commenced, by women devoting 
themselves for the love of God, as Mrs. Tennant had 
done. 

" It was an anxious question. We were entirely inex- 
perienced in penitentiary work. Iso precedent in the 
Church of England was known to us of the kind pro- 
posed. * * * 

" On the other hand, there were many encouragements. 
A j)owerful feeling had gradually spread that the old- 
fashioned mode of dealing with Penitents, viz., by paid 
matrons, aided by visiting ladies, and governed by com- 
mittees, was inefficient. It was felt that their restora- 
tion was a harder work than had been supposed, and 
needed greater power of influence ; especially that Peni- 
tents required minds of a higher order to act constantly 
upon them, and that instead of being a paid service, it 
should be carried on as a religious work for Christ's sake. 
It was felt, also, that a more definite and fuller teaching 
of the Church's system ought to be infused into such in- 
stitutions. *' * * 

" The system here advocated had, moreover, been sue- 



CITY MISSIONS. 75 



cessfully carried out in other communions, though not as 
yet in our own. The Roman Catholics had a large asy- 
lum, the ' Good Shepherd,' containing eighty Penitents, 
or more, at Hammersmith. Pastor Fliedner, a Lutheran 
minister, had established a much smaller asylum, holding 
ten or twelve, also under the care of Sisters, at Kaiser- 
worth, on the Rhine. If, then, such work was done by 
others, why might it not be done by us ? Why should 
the Church of Eno-land alone be barren of such a service 
of love? 

" But our chief ground of encouragement was the sin- 
gular manifestation, as appeared to us, of the hand of 
God in the circumstance which had occurred, — so un- 
looked for, so entirely unsought. Coupled with the fact 
that this very mode of reclaiming the fallen had been the 
desire of many earnest hearts, the sudden springing up 
of the work of this place seemed an answer to prayer ; 
and to shrink back because of the difficulties of the task, 
an unworthy want of trust in Him who was thus propos- 
ing to save souls, whose utter loss but for such help 
seemed sure. * * * 

" Meanwhile, Mrs. Tennant labored on with wonderful 
self-devotion. Her house was converted into a peniten- 
tiary ; her garden became the recreation ground. For 
seven months this true servant of God had no other 
helper but a sempstress, who at the time chanced to be 
employed in the house, and who remained on indefinitely 
from day to day, laboring most earnestly for about six 
months. * * * 

" It is scarcely possible to conceive the intense toil, 
mental and bodily, which was undergone during this 
period, in reducing to order and combining together so 
many inmates wdiolly undisciplined, and so various in 



76 CITY MISSIONS. 

character and temper, when every rule had to be learned 
and tested by experience. * * * 

" At first, even to retain the penitents in the house 
where they were held, as it often seenis, by a single 
fragile thread, was no ordinary task. To win and guide 
their changeful spirits ; to check the frequent outbursts 
of temper ; to overcome continual collisions ; to remedy 
overpowering fits of despondency ; to watch and correct 
every wrong expression ; to teach and encourage perse- 
verance in industry; to direct the thoughts by reading or 
conversation ; to turn to religious improvement passing 
incidents ; to promote cheerfulness ; to infuse right prin- 
ciples — and all this at times of recreation as well as 
work — was what Mrs. Tennant gave herself to do with 
an unwearied assiduity. The necessary difficulties were 
intensely aggravated by having such a number admitted 
at the same time, and so suddenly. What soon became 
mere matter of course, such as wearing a uniform dress, 
rising on a lady's entrance into the room, were at first 
the subject of much contrivance and anxiety. To carry 
on the class of needle-work, overlook those employed in 
kitchen or household work, attend to the sick, set and 
hear lessons, preside at all meals, watch ever at night 
over the bedrooms, was the ordinary round of work that 
had to be done. * * * 

" It should be remarked that we had not planned the 
formation of a sisterhood, and then sought out a work 
for it ; but the work came to us to be done, and a sister- 
hood was* the only practical instrument for carrying it 
on. * * As long as the work depended on individ- 

uals coming to and fro from time to time, there could be 
no prospect of permanency. It must have always re- 
mained a system of shifts and a daily uncertainty. Nor 



CITY MISSIONS. 17 

was this the only reason for a sisterhood. A settled 
religious tone and uniform course of training could never 
have been established in the house, without an organized 
community living together under fixed rule. It needs 
not an individual, but a corporate life, such as is found 
in collegiate institutions. Nor, indeed, could ladies bear 
the burden of such a work without the loving sympathy 
and support of others like-minded, bound together by a 
holy bond, and trained into harmony through means such 
as are found in religious communities constituted under 
Church authority. * * * 

" Experience has shown to us that such a work never 
can be domestic. Modes of discipline and control, very 
different from those of a family, are requisite. It is im- 
possible to train penitents in the w^ays of an ordinary 
household. They must be dealt with in a body, under 
special rule ; and what is this but an institution ? The 
only choice is as to its size and number of inmates. One 
important reason in favor of an enlarged institution is 

J- O 

the increased facility it gives for classification. To asso- 
ciate constantly and closely together even a lew peni- 
tents in different stages of progress involves serious evils. 
The lower in rate of progress tend to depress the general 
moral tone, and draw down the more advanced, rather 
than the more advanced to raise those less advanced. 
One new inmate may' disorder the whole set ; or, per- 
haps, intimacies are formed, or disagreements arise, 
mutually injurious, so as to counteract all our endeavors, 
and separation is the only means of preventing ruin. 
Now, in order to separate and classify even a small num- 
ber, an amount of space, appliances, and supervision is 
necessary, which may readily be made available for 
many." 



78 CITY MISSIONS. 

In 1851, a meeting was held at the house of the Bishop 
of London, at which " a comprehensive plan was sketched 
out, embracing two kinds of houses : (1.) Refuges, or 
houses of penitence, of the first instance, into which 
sinners from the very streets of the city might at once 
he gathered. (2.) Penitentiaries, or houses of penitence, 
of the second instance, situated in the country, to which 
the more promising cases might be transferred from the 
refuges after due testing, and wherein a more complete 
training might be given. * *• * 

CD CD CD 

"The Association numbered in March, 1854, three 
hundred and ninety -nine members, including fifteen 

•/ " CD 

Bishops. Most important is the sanction which this 
Association gives to the course which has been pursued. 
Church penitentiaries, and sisterhoods as the instruments 
of conducting them, may now be fairly regarded as an 
integral portion of our Church's system." *'. * * From 
the highest to the humblest posts of service the most 
noble spirit has been manifested. " In only two instances, 
and for a few months, have we paid wages to any one in 
the house." * * - * 

" Certain portions of every day are set apart for devo- 
tion and instruction. They are taught both in class and 
individually. But the greater part of the day is occupied 
in manual labor. They do all the work of the house ; 
some are in the kitchen, cooking, baking, etc. ; some in 
the dairy, some in the laundry ; others at needlework ; 
others are employed as housemaids : there are always 
some invalided ; though we take all possible precaution 
to prevent their being admitted when out of health. 
Our object is to make their labor in the house remunera- 
tive, as well as to render them as useful as possible in 
some place of service. Their time of remaining varies. 



CITY MISSIONS. V9 

We make no conditions or fixed rule. Some remain two 
years, some one ; the average is about a year and a half: 
some remain even beyond two years. We are never 
satisfied to let them go till they become settled commu- 
nicants, and, as far as we can judge, steadfastly disposed 
to persevere. The kindest assistance in providing places 
of service has been offered to us. We have seldom had 
a Penitent whom Ave washed to recommend, but before 
long a situation has been found. Moreover, we lead the 
Penitents to look to the House of Mercy as their home, 
even after they have been restored to the world ; not 
that we encourage their return, but because the feeling 
that they have a place of safety, and lasting friends in 
any special need, as e. //., during intervals of service, is 
very helpful to persons so friendless, and whose natural 
homes, if they have any, are generally the worst places 
for them. * * * 

" The Sisters are ladies of the Church of England, 
serving as the Sceurs de la Charite abroad. It is a life 
of very active service. One or more of the Sisters are 
with the Penitents in all their occupations ; at their 
meals and during their recreation. They overlook and 
direct them from morning till night. They watch over 
them, also, in their dormitories. It is a rule that the 
Penitents should never be left without a Sister being 
present. The Sisters teach under the direction of the 
clergy ; but their more constant work consists in prac- 
tically infusing right principles, controlling temper, 
checking irregularities, stimulating to industry, winning 
and guiding them through all changes and trials, and 
thus gradually, through the grace of God, forming char- 
acter in the hourly routine of life. It is important to 
note, that it is a rule strictly enforced, that the Penitents 



SO CITY MISSIONS, 

should never sneak of their nast sins, either to the Sisters 
or to one another, 

" The Sisters' work and usefulness is not limited to the 
House. Those who are able, also visit the poor, and 
teach in the schools of the parish. While the main part 
of the Sisters'' life is thus passed in active employment, 
their rule provides opportunities each day for their 
private studies and recreation. 

" Connected with the Sisters of the Community, and 
aiding them from without, are Associates, i. e., Christian 
women, living in their own homes in the world, and 
giving such assistance as their circumstances will permit. 
They are admitted on undertaking to offer up prayer in 
behalf of the House of Mercy, and to do some definite 
work for its benefit, as e. g., to collect alms, provide em- 
ployment for the Penitents, assist in the sale of their 
work, or find means of livelihood for those who may be 
recommended. The Associates are remembered in the 
prayers of the community, and are connected with it by 
ties of mutual fellowship and love. * * * 

" The Superior shall be a fully-admitted Sister, and 
shall have the government of the Sisters and other in- 
mates of the institution, subject to the superintendence 
of the Warden. 

" The Sisters shall consist of two classes: Sisters fully 
admitted after probation, and Sisters probationary ISTo 
person shall be admitted as Sister probationary unless a 
member of the Church of England, nor without the writ- 
ten consent of her parents if under the age of thirty years. 
Every Sister shall have full and uncontrolled liberty, 
whenever she shall think fit, to leave the institution." — 
The first five years of the House of Mercy, Clewer : 
Masters — Lon don , 1856. 



CITY MISSIONS. 81 

" Am I wrong in supposing that this work is an event- 
ful one in the Church of England? Some members of 
the Church of Rome have been here, have made their in- 
quiries, and have told me that such works can never be 
accomplished by us. I thought how little they knew the 
heart that throbs within the Church of our fathers, or 
the foreshadowings we have of what God proposeth to 
do by us in the latter davs. 

"Some of our friends w r ho have bid 'God speed' to 
our cause, have yet thought w^e were serving it by wrong 
means ; that the principle of a Sisterhood is not true to 
the Church of England, and that ladies of birth, of purity 
and of refinement, cannot safely mix themselves up with 
such a work. I only wish all such objectors could come 
and see." — Extract from a Utter from the Chaplain at 
Clewe?\ 

St Mary's Home — Wantage, 

" Our first report of this institution commences with its 
second year— and already (so needed the work) the ne- 
cessity of enlargement is being felt. The principal fea- 
ture to be noticed in their arrangements, is their connec- 
tion with the public Penitentiary Association of the City 
of Oxford — proposals having been received from the 
authorities of the Oxford Penitentiary, that St. Mary's 
Home should act in union with them, carrying out in eftect 
the plan which must be resorted to in all large cities, of the 
Home of Refuge or Receiving House in the city itself — 
while, away from the bustle, noise and excitement of the 
city, in the quiet and stillness of the country, is placed 
the Home — where alone the work of penitence can be 
carried on. Speaking of the time of retaining them in 
this Home, the Report says : — ' It differs, in almost every 
case, though, the average would be about two years — it 
being a time in which vicious and idle habits are to be 

o 



82 CITY MISSIONS. 

broken through and got rid of; good ones to be formed 
in their place ; sorrow for the past ; desire of amendment 
for the future to be fostered, trained, and made practical; 
and, lastly, amended ways to grow habitual. Where the 
amendment is too rapid, it often springs from mere natu- 
ral quickness of feeling, which is frequently allied to 
levity of mind, and by time alone can be tested and cor- 
rected.' 

" Of the fruits of their work, we may judge by letters 
from the Penitents, after having left them to return to 
the duties and trials of the world. One says : ■ On going 
to the Railway Station, 1 could not help thinking that 
it seemed like a dream, that so short a time before I had 
come that way in such a state ; and now, I was (or rather 
I hoped I was) better in body as well as soul, than I was 
then.' She afterwards speaks of the trial of saying 
prayers reverently in the same room with another servant, 
who was c so short a time,' and asks for ' the prayers of 
the Sisters and Penitents ; for I feel I have great need of 
tliem,' and for a prayer i to use daily for the Home ; and 
I will try to use it some time in the middle of the day.' 
Another writes : c It was a great trial to me the first 
night and the next morning to say my prayers ; for they 
seem to kneel down and get up in five minutes. I miss 
the service in the chapel so very much. Please ask the 
Sisters and Penitents to continue their prayers for me. 
I thank you for the kindness and instruction I received 
at the Home ; and I hope I shall strive, day by day, to 
profit by it.' Speaking of the kindness of her master and 
mistress, ' I think it makes me do my work so much bet- 
ter. I must tell you the holy communion is to be admin- 
istered here next Sunday ; I would like you to send me 
word what particular point I am to take in approaching 
that holy table, I miss your class very much on the sub- 



CITY MISSIONS. 83 

ject.' Again, she speaks of ' managing her work' that 
she might get to church on week-days. ' I would ask 
you what you would advise me to do this Lent ? I find 
I am not able to do without meat oil Friday, but' — and 
here she mentions some small act of self-denial, the fruit 
of which I afterwards found went towards a charity 
— 'I have had a great temptation to give up ; but I have, 
I hope, got the better of it, but not in mine own strength.' 
One mentions having had leave to go out when conve- 
nient ; 'but I have not, for I felt afraid.' Another says, 
I long to hear from you ; for I feel so lonely.' 

" It will not be necessary to point out the altered tone 
of thought and feeling which these letters prove to have 
taken place in their writers, when it is considered what 
they had been. Xor are the extracts of the better portion 
only selected for the reader's approval. They are but 
extracts from many full of similar feeling, evincing 
thankfulness for what has been done for them at the 
Home, and their present blessings ; perseverance, so far 
as it could yet be tried, sometimes under difficulties, dis- 
trust of themselves, but humble trust in God's continual 
goodness through Christ ; a deep value of the means of 
grace ; and a faithful use of the spiritual privileges within 
their reach. 

" In my last account I alluded to the confirmation of 
six Penitents. On the 27th of October last our Bishop 
confirmed ten of the Penitents. One, before long, fin- 
ished her struggle ; we hope she is now at rest in Paradise, 
with him who hung on the cross beside our Lord ; and 
with her who, bathed in tears, first stood beneath His 
cross, and then watched His sepulchre. A second Peni- 
tent has finished her earthly probation under our roof, in 
the midst of her penitential- course. We owe, humanly 
speaking, to nearly the last words of this poor dying girl, 



84 CITY MISSIONS. 

the hold which we have since attained over one of the 
most trying and difficult cases which have ever fallen 
under our care. It is not a little remarkable,' that in 
each of the two cases, when a Penitent has been removed 
from us by death, the result has been the softening and 
establishing of others, whose position had before seemed 
well-nigh hopeless. 

" Ladies of the Church of England, Sisters in Christ, 
am I asking too much, when I appeal to you for personal 
aid ? The fallen of your own sex ; they who have had 
few friends to care for and watch over them, in those 
vears when they most needed a faithful and anxious 
oriardian ; who have been exposed to temptations such 
as you can hardly appreciate, and may be thankful that 
you can never know ; blighted by sin in the very bloom 
of life, and now seeking pardon, and to begin anew ; these 
seek your assistance — seek for one who, superior to them 
bv birth, by education, by an untainted life, will yet look 
upon them in their sorrow with an eye of love, and 
impart to them the benefit of her superiority, by using 
its innate influence to raise them from their low condition. 
Shall it be said that they seek in vain ? Are there none 
wmo have felt bitter earthly losses, widows perhaps, who 
are willing to turn from that world, whose most innocent 
pleasures brkig to them but the remembrance of pain 
and keenest sorrow ; and from whose gayer scenes they 
must turn with a sickening heart ? Are there none so 
situated that they would seek, in the constant round of 
heavenly work, reunion in spirit with those with whom 
their hearts are still ? I mean, not a vain seeking from 
toil and trial, a rest which may not be in this world, nor 
even from spiritual travail ; but the inward rest of the 
spirit, when the body is wearied with the work of Christ ; 
that inward rest of the spirit, when it can turn to Him 



CITY MISSIONS. 85 

who says, c Come unto me all that travail and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest ;' and looking unto Him, 
beholds united with Him those who have departed in 
Him. Are there none, who, thus bound by the chastening 
hand to a better world, desire to live for that world, and 
be united with it through the work of love, seeking, in 
reclaiming the fallen, to replace by spiritual children, 
their lost earthly ones ? Are there none who can leave 
the hollow pleasures of this fading world, and seek the 
future blessing of self-sacrifice ? Shall the blessed promise, 
so often repeated in our daily lessons, year by year, 
* Verily, verily, I say unto you, that no man that hath left 
houses or lands, father or mother, or brethren or sisters, 
for my name's sake, but shall receive an hundred-fold 
now ; and in the world to come, everlasting life,' pass by 
unheeded ? No : unheeded it is not ; there are those who 
have heard the word and have received it ; but they are 
few." — Reports from 1852-53 and '54, of St. Mary's 
Jlomej Wantage. 

Before concluding this subject, let a few earnest words 
be added. As far as this Report is concerned, the sub- 
ject now before us is about to be dismissed. Must it, 
however, be likewise dismissed from mind and heart? 
As Christians, are we willing to acknowledge that the 
poet was a true prophet, when he said — 

" And every woe a tear can claim/ 
Except an erring sister's shame ;" 

and that the Church has nothing to do with female 
penitents ? Surely the time for ignoring this subject 
because of a false shame is past — a shame which would 
whiten .the outside of societv, while it leaves its inner life 
a prey to all uncleanness ; and if we still act upon it, 
how can we escape our Lord's denunciation of the Pha- 



86 CITY MISSIONS. 

risees ? Our time is too short to be ashamed of saving 
souls. Let us then recall a few of the chief points illus- 
trated by the above extracts, that they may remain in 
our hearts as seeds, having within them the germs both 
of flowers and of fruit. 

1. Humanly speaking, the class under consideration 
(I will not venture upon the fearful arithmetic of their 
numbers) have no hope of salvation, unless assisted by* 
the Church of Christ. They have no homes but those 
of vice, no associations but those of sin ; how, then, can 
they help themselves ? 

2. Their reformation is of necessity the slow and 
tedious work of penitence — the eradication of bad habits 
both of body and mind, with the gradual formation in 
their place of those that are good — sorrow leading to 
love. Hence it would hardly need the confirmation 
coming from their failure, to prove to us the inadequacy 
for such a work of the large Magdalen Asylums under 
the charge of hired matrons and assistants ; and hence 
also the absolute necessity of such establishments as 
those of Clewer and Wantage, under the charge of self- 
denying and refined women, which should be, not indus- 
trial schools for the fallen, but in the strictest sense of 
the words, Homes of Penitents. 

3. These establishments, then, being looked at strictly 
in this light, many drawbacks which have heretofore 
kept ladies from this work would be removed. As Homes 
of Penitents, they would likewise be homes of holiness, 
of refinement, and of love. "No rule would be more 
strict or stringent than that there must be no "allusion 
whatsoever to the guilty scenes of their former life, either 
on the part of one Penitent to another, or on the part of 
the Penitents to the Sisters. ISTo word should ever be 
heard in these Homes which would offend the keenest 



CITY MISSIONS. 87 

sensibility, so that none need shrink from the work, from 
the justifiable fear of obtaining thereby a knowledge of sin. 

4. The future of these Penitents, though an anxious 
subject, would ever be one of the deepest interest. Who 
can doubt that the natural and constant study of the his- 
tory of St. Mary Magdalen would, through the grace of 
God, suggest to many the earnest desire of following in 
her footsteps by devoting the rest of their lives to Christ, 
to His poor, and to His sick? The thought would 
always seem so natural and at the same time so heaven- 
sent, that, except in cases of entire disqualification, the 
Sisters would feel the greatest joy in fostering it, and the 
greatest pleasure in fitting their charges for so heavenly a 
work. Our hospitals and associations for the sick and 
poor ought ever to supply both work and support for 
such laborers ; and where could a true Penitent find a 
happier life, or one more free from those trials and temp- 
tations which she must still expect? 

With the contrasted thought, then, of what, if left to 
themselves, must be the future / and what, if we will but 
help them, may be the future of these poor unfortunates, 
we leave this subject. 



Code of Statutes for Si. NiniarCs, Perth. 

1. The Church shall continue to bear the name of 
St. NiniarCS) and to be the Cathedral Church of the 
United Diocese of St. Andrew's, Dunkeld, and Dun- 
blane , or, in case of separation of the Dioceses at any 
future time, of that Diocese in which Perth shall be 
situate. 

2. The Bishop of St. Andrew's, or of that Diocese to 
which Perth shall belong, being a true and duly conse- 
crated Bishop of the Church, commonly called the JSpis- 



88 CITY MISSIONS. 

copal Church of Scotland, shall exercise the same rights 
of visitation over the Cathedral as over all other Churches 
within his Diocese, with full power to assist in the per- 
formance of divine service therein, as and when he pleases ; 
and the Clergy of the Cathedral shall be subject to the 
Bishop, and amenable to Canonical Jurisdiction, Provin- 
cial and Diocesan, in all respects as the other Clergy of 
the Diocese. 

3. The Clergy shall consist of a Superior Officer, to be 
named (provisionally)* Provost, and of Three or more 
Canons Residentiary. 

4. It shall be the duty of the Provost (under the 
Bishop) to govern the whole Institution, Cathedral and 
Collegiate, to superintend and control the performance 
of all Divine Offices, and especially to take the chief part 
in preaching Sermons. 

5. The Canon next in rank to the Provost shall hold 
the i^lace of Precentor, whose office it shall be to manage 
the details of the Choral Service, to assist the Provost in 
preaching, and to act as Bursar and Librarian. 

6. The Canon of the Second Stall shall be the Hector 
of a Collegiate School for Boys of the Middle Classes, 
to be attached to the Cathedral. 

V. The Canon of the Third Stcdl shall be the Prin- 
cipal of a Diocesan Centred or Model School, for chil- 
dren, male and female, of the Laboring Class, also to be 
attached to the Cathedral. 

8. It shall be the duty of the Provost and Precentor 

* Eventually, Dean : if it shall seem good to the next General 
Synod either to change the title of the Diocesan Dean into that of 
Archdeacon ; or (which seems more desirable, and more in accord- 
ance "with the intentions of the first framers of the Canons) that the 
Deanship of the Diocese and of the Cathedral should be united in 
one person. 



CITY MISSIONS. 89 

(and of the other Canons also, so far as may be done con- 
veniently with their respective offices, of which the Pro- 
vost shall be the judge) to attend the ordinary Daily 
Service of the Church. 

The Precentor, Third Canon or Principal, and any 
other Residentiary who may hereafter be added to the 
Chapter, shall severally be charged (under direction of 
the Provost) with some portion of Pastoral or Missionary 
Duty, with a view to the extension of the Church in 
Perth ; and any such additional Residentiary shall, as 
occasion may require, act as a Supernumerary or Mission- 
ary Clergyman in the Diocese. 

9. The Bishop shall hold a Quarterly Meeting of Chap- 
ter at the Cathedral, at the four seasons. 

Previously to the Advent Meeting, the accounts of the 
past year shall be audited, so as to be drawn out and 
ready for the Bishop's inspection, if required. 

If the Bishop be absent, the Provost shall preside at 
all such meetings ; but if both be absent, the meeting 
shall be adjourned till one or other may be able to preside. 

10. The Provost shall be appointed by the Bishop; 
the Canons Residentiary by the Bishop and Provost 
conjointly. The Lay Vicars Choral and Choristers by 
the Provost and Precentor. 

It shall be competent for the Bishop, with the con- 
currence of two-thirds of the votes of the Chapter, to 
remove the Provost, or any of the Canons Residentiary, 
for insubordination, habitual neglect of duty, or any 
grave delinquency. 

No Canon Residentiary shall go out of Residence 
without leave of the Provost ; nor shall the Provost, or 
any of the Residentiaries, be absent from the Cathedral 
for more than a month, without express leave from the 
Bishop. 



90 CITY MISSIONS. 

11. The Dean of the Diocese, the Warden of Trinity 
College, (if not otherwise a member of the Chapter,) and 
the Jive Senior Presbyters of the Diocese, (ranking from 
the date of their first Ordination,) shall be requested to 
accept the office of Prebendaries, or Canons Non-Resi- 
dentiary; and, as such, shall be invited to preach in 
rotation, monthly, i. e., one in each month, at the Cathe- 
dral, and to attend the quarterly meetings of Chapter. 

12. No business shall be brought forward at any 
Chapter Meeting, unless approved of by the Bishop, and 
nothing adopted without his concurrence. 

13. In all business of Chapter which is brought to 
suffrage, the Prebendaries shall have a single, the Resi- 
dentiaries a double, and the Provost a triple vote. In 
case of an equality of votes, the Bishop shall decide. 

14. The Bishop shall have no power to make new 
laws, or to alter any of these Statutes, unless supported 
by two-thirds of votes of Chapter. 

15. The Cathedral Church, College and School, with 
their appurtenances, shall be vested in the Bishop of the 
Diocese and the Provost and Chapter. 

16. The foregoing laws shall constitute the Code of 
Statutes for the government of the Institution. Any 
additions to be made to them, and especially the ad- 
justment of details with respect to the Stipends to be 
assigned to the Cathedral Offices, shall be considered 
and determined on from time to time by the Bishop in 
Chapter; for which purpose special meetings may be 
held. 

The Position of the Institution in the Diocese shall be 
as follows : 

1. The Provost to hold rank next to the Dean of the 



CITY MISSIONS. 91 

Diocese, and to have a vote in Synod, in right of his 
Cathedral Church. 

2. The Canons Residentiary to rank according to the 
date of their Ordination, in common with the other (in- 
stituted) Clergy, but not to be entitled to a vote in 
Synod. 

3. The Bishop to hold his Synods, Visitations and 
Ordinations at the Cathedral ; except he may see fit, 
under special circumstances, to order otherwise. 

The foregoing Code of Statutes received the unani- 
mous acceptance and approved of the Synod of the united 
Diocese, held at Trinity College, July 6, 1853. And 
having been subsequently consented to by the Chapter of 
St. NinianbS, was solemnly ratified and confirmed by the 
Bishop. 

July 9, 1853. 



The Cathedral System. — " Many are the ■ Uses of 
Cathedrals,' to borrow from a paper with that title 
which was put out by the late Bishop of Calcutta, under 
the date of October, 1841, while maturing his conception 
of the Metropoiitical Church of India. The ■ Cathedral 
Clergy acted as assessors with the Bishop in ecclesias- 
tical jurisdiction;' ' they constituted, also, the Bishop's 
Council.' 'Again, they were nurseries for sound theo- 
logical learning- •' and ' assisted in the education in divin- 
ity of the young deacons and students.' Once more, 
'they formed so many advisers and helpers in all re- 
ligious and benevolent designs in the cathedral, city 
and neighborhood.' Also, they ' formed a body or 
corporation for receiving and managing, to the best 
advantage, benefactions, legacies and trusts. The Ca- 
thedral benefices, themselves, constituted rewards for 



92 CITY MISSIONS. 

the most pious and laborious Clergy.' In short, the 
Cathedral, with its Clergy, were the outworks of 
Christianity.' 

" Out of these somewhat abstract dicta — more ab- 
stract and dry from the abbreviated form in which I 
have been compelled to quote them — grows a whole 
crop of practical conclusions. They show the necessity 
of the Chapter-house for clerical meetings, and of the 
Cathedral library for the Theological College, not to 
refer to the studies of the Clergy of the Diocese; also, 
I may add, for the Choir School, and — as an offshoot 
of that Choir School — for the town Grammar School, at 
which a place in the Choir might be and ought to be 
the cordon bleu. There are, also, training-schools for 
schoolmasters and schoolmistresses ; hospitals, where 
spiritual consolation ought to follow upon medical 
solace ; penitentiaries, for the fallen ; and houses of 
charity, for those whose happier lot is to be saved 
from falling ; and almshouses, for relieA T ing old age. 
Then, again, in every well-to-do town, there are or 
ought to be, now-a-clays, middle-class colleges, and 
schools, both day and night, and poor schools — adult, 
young and infant — open in the morning and in the 
evening. There are mechanics' institutes and lending 
libraries, where religious and secular literature ought 
to be liberally blended. There are popular lectures, in 
connection with those libraries and institutes, which 
require an organizing supervision and a convenient 
locale. There are, likewise, friendly and savings' so- 
cieties, and voluntary guilds, with their harmless para- 
phernalia, and their meritorious spirit of co-operation. 
There are machineries of physical relief, dispensaries, 
and so on, all of which demand headquarters. These 
various organizations are the growth of a state of 



CITY MISSIONS. 93 

society, of which the most alarming characteristic is, 
that great civilization, great activity, great resources, 
"both material and intellectual, can exist by the side of 
fathomless need of every kind, both temporal and spir- 
itual. They will continue to exist, whether the Church 

4/ 7 

helps them and they help the Church, or whether they 
and the Church hold off in coldness and suspicion from 
each other. If the Church helps them, they will be 
the outworks of Christianity. If it does not, they may 
become instruments either of that decorous and phi- 
lanthropic Deism which is a growing peril of the age, 
or of that unreasoning: and narrow fanaticism which so 
unhappily helps on unbelief by its intellectual feebleness 
when pitted against it in single combat. If, however, 
the Church does, happily, help their endeavors, it can 
best do so by means of some compact and well-adjusted 
machinery, with some conspicuous central motive power. 
This machinery, and this central motive power, can 
most efficiently be provided in accordance with the 
formal Constitution of the Church. The religious insti- 
tutions which will undoubtedly grow out of rational 
and business-like endeavors to evangelize large popu- 
lations, whether it is called so or not, will, in every 
large town, virtually be a Cathedral, and it had, there- 
fore, best be moulded openly and honestly into a 
Cathedral shape. * * * 

" It is my deep sense of its importance which leads me 
to touch with brevity upon the highest spiritual work of 
a Chapter, that of Missionary duties in the Cathedral 
city and throughout the Diocese. These duties, so solemn, 
so delicate, so tender, cannot be mapped out, like the de- 
tails of an architectural style, in a short treatise. It is 
sufficient that the wisest of men has pronounced that a 
three-fold cord cannot easily be broken, to demonstrate 

*- 7 



94 CITY MISSIONS. 

that the co-operative exertions of a body of men must be 
more efficacious than the single exertions of each member, 
in a ratio far exceeding the simple addition of their num- 
bers. During the last season I heard the Bishop of Lan- 
daff dwell, at a public meeting, upon the necessity of 
some Missionary organization as a supplement to our 
Parochial system. If, then, there be a necessity for cor- 
porate Missionary work in our Church, the incorporate 
Missionaries would most fitly be attached to the Cathe- 
dral as the central point at which, from the nature of 
things, the utmost facility for co-operative power must 
exist. Thus, also, any system of preaching,- in which the 
natural curiosity of mankind is made use of to stir the 
careless and to confirm the faithful, through the utter- 
ances of novel teachers, may be shaped into order and 
regularity as an occasional but recognised incident of the 
Cathedral operations. The administrative business of a 
well worked Diocese, represented by the secretaryships 
and places of meeting of its various educational and re- 
ligious societies, likewise requires its headquarters. * '* ' * 
Be up and stirring, and plant the Gospel in conspicuous 
guise, with well-adjusted organization, as the means suf- 
ficient for so great an end, where the throng is thickest, 
and God speed the work." — -The English Cathedral of the 
Nineteenth Century, by A. J. B. Beresfobd Hope, M. A., 
D. C. L,, p. 258. 

Individual Missions. — " My Brethren of the Clergy, it 
is our fault. Many a bold yet trembling soul, touched 
by God's spirit, has asked for guidance and found none. 
Like Saul, it has seen a vision and heard a voice, saying, 
' Go and it shall be told thee what thou must do.' But 
day after day has past. Sunday after Sunday has the 
voice of the preacher rolled in melodious measures through 



CITY MISSIONS. 95 

the chambers of the ear. But still no guiding voice has 
yet spoken to that heart and conscience, in simple, straight- 
forward words, saying, ' Such is your mission, the spirit- 
ual gifts which you have received are proof, be not afraid 
to follow it. Before you is your Saviour, and behind are 
the Everlasting Arms. The barrel of meal shall not waste, 
nor the cruse of oil fail till the work be done."' Brother- 
hoods may be well and Sisterhoods may be well, but, far 
easier to be obtained, and often far better for the special 
work to be done, is the one sister or the one brother who 
has been made to see his mission, and hand in hand 
with his guide and Pastor started upon its accomplish- 
ment. Were this the rule of pastoral relationship and 
guidance rather than the extreme exception, from the 
teaching of the little country Parish School up to the 
building of the noble Cathedral, nothing would be im- 
possible to our beloved Church ; c The Holy Ghost work- 
ing in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.' " 
— The close, ad elerum, of a Sermon on Individual Mis- 
sions, by — . 



CONCLUSION. 

This Supplement is here brought to an end, not because 
the subject is exhausted, but simply that what was written 
to interest, may not weary. Two conclusions might be 
drawn from the above extracts. First, that a city like 
New- York affords Mission work enough for the spare 
time, energies and means of every member of our Church, 
and if we be a^true Branch of the Church of Christ, we 
cannot safely shrink from its performance. And secondly, 
that this work, in each of its general features having been 
tried and accomplished with more or less success in 



96 CITY MISSIONS. 

Foreign cities and by Foreign Churches, it is thereby 
clearly demonstrated that it can be done in this city and 
by us, Xor let any say, the work is too great, and it is 
not ours alone ; the city government and other Churches 
should do their part. It may be so ; but what of that ? 
We have no desire for a union between Church and 
State, and yet without it the two could never work in 
unison ; nor have we any thing to do with the responsi- 
bilities of other Churches : their zeal will not lighten our 
burden, nor will their coldness excuse our neglect ; our 
work is before us, we know what it is ; may God help 
us to feel it likewise, and to labor at it and in it. 

But this work, as may well be seen, would require 
money, more by thousands than has ever yet been given 
by us for Mission purposes. Will this be a drawback to 
the work or not ? Ought it to be ? As a community 
are we either poor or illiberal? That we have not the 
reputation of being poor, we know full well ; too often has 
it been thrown in our teeth as a taunt to leave it at all 
doubtful. That we do not grudge the spending of our 
means may be as easily demonstrated. It is not neces- 
sary to go to St. Luke's Hospital, though it be a noble 
example, our own firesides will suffice. Yfhat is wanting 
there, that money will buy, of all that will minister to 
the comfort and pleasure of those we love ? Hundreds 
and even thousands are spent ungrudgingly to adminis- 
ter to the enjoyment of friends for a single evening. 
Who, then, can convict us of i^arsimony, and who in the 
sight of God dare say that we are either too poor or too 
illiberal to carry on the great work of a City Mission ? 
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might ; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, 
nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest ;" and 
"the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 










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